Malcolm Turnbull quietly parts ways with US finance firm after sledging Donald Trump in epic war of words

Daily Mail​

08-05-2025

Malcolm Turnbull 's public attacks on Donald Trump earlier this year may have cost him his cushy job as an advisor to one of the world's biggest private equity firms.
After his departure from politics, the former prime minister joined New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) in 2019 as one of its Asia Pacific senior advisors.
In the well-paid role, Mr Turnbull counselled the firm on doing business in the region using the knowledge and contacts he built through his corporate and political careers.
But Mr Turnbull no longer appears on the firm's website after he was reportedly shown the door following his highly publicised spat with Trump.
In an interview with Bloomberg in March, Mr Turnbull called the US president 'chaotic, rude, abrasive and erratic' before criticising his stance on global trade and predicting that China would 'take massive advantage' of him.
Trump fired back on his Truth Social network that Mr Turnbull was a 'weak and ineffectual' leader and 'never understood what was going on in China'.
Not to be outdone, Mr Turnbull then called Trump a 'billionaire bully' in a National Press Club speech and urged other Australian politicians to 'stand up' to him.
KKR has extensive investments in the US, China and Australia, with one source telling the Australian Financial Review that Mr Turnbull had been cut loose to avoid rocking the boat in waters already made choppy by Trump's trade wars.
In one deal he helped broker for KKR as part of a $100million funding round, he introduced the firm to AI robotics company Advanced Navigation, which he had also personally invested in.
The appointment marked a return to the world of finance for Turnbull, a former lawyer who held a host of high-profile corporate roles before entering politics as a local member of parliament in 2004.
In the 1990s, Turnbull was the local managing director of global investment bank Goldman Sachs.
He was also an investor in one of Australia's first internet service providers, OzEmail, reportedly buying a stake for $500,000 in 1994 and selling it for $57million to MCI Worldcom five years later.
Turnbull had several shadow ministry and cabinet positions for the Liberal party and coalition government before orchestrating a leadership coup and becoming prime minister in September 2015.
He was himself unseated as prime minister in another leadership challenge in August 2018 by Scott Morrison, one of four Australian prime ministers to be overthrown by their own party in a decade.
Turnbull's first appointment since leaving politics put him in the company of several Australian leaders to take up financial advisory roles after leaving office.
The former Labor prime minister, Paul Keating, became an adviser to the investment bank Lazard Australia, while the former New South Wales premier Bob Carr became a consultant to the country's biggest investment bank, Macquarie Group.
KKR counts more than two dozen senior and industry advisers among its personnel.
They provide counsel on the investment implications of trends and developments in public policy, regulation, societal needs and technology around the world.
Among the other senior advisers KKR brought on board with experience in the Asia Pacific region were former HSBC group chairman John Bond and former Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford.
Former Singaporean minister Lim Hwee Hua also served as an advisor.