I love the smell of panic in the morning.
For this Australian, the icing on the cake of the historic Trump victory – not just the presidency, but the Senate and quite possibly the House in a clean sweep – is not just watching the predictable meltdowns on social media. It’s the palpable panic sweeping the Albanese Labor government. Not only because of the intemperate, childish attacks on Trump by senior Labor figures – attacks the president won’t soon forget – but because Labor’s toadying to China is putting themselves on the wrong side of the Trump presidency.
Last but not least, the clear signal that incumbency is a liability, not an asset, in 2024.
Anthony Albanese is preparing a diplomatic full-court press to shore-up the nation’s interests amid fears Donald Trump’s America First 2.0 agenda and looming trade war with China will undermine Labor’s economic, climate change, defence and foreign policies.
With Mr Trump reclaiming the presidency and the Republicans on track to control both houses of congress, Australian diplomatic and security officials have been instructed to execute a Plan-B strategy to solidify the country’s relationship with an incoming Trump administration.
The Australian can reveal that days out from the election, senior cabinet ministers were “very confident” Kamala Harris would beat Mr Trump and that it would be “business as usual” for Australia.
Which included both the PM and his captain’s pick president.
Mr Albanese, who described Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Mr Trump as a “triumph of hope over fear”, said in 2017 the billionaire “scares the sh.t out of me” and that he would deal with him “with trepidation”.
[Kevin Rudd], who despite efforts to build relationships with Republicans may struggle to remain long-term as Australia’s top official in Washington, previously described Mr Trump as “nuts”, a “traitor to the West” and “the most destructive president in history”. Labor ministers have labelled Mr Trump as “barking mad”, “a sore loser” and “a big baby”.
I bet Trump scares the shit out of Albo even more, now. As Malcolm Turnbull might have warned him, after Trump famously blasted him on an official phone call. Albo can be sure the Trumps haven’t forgotten him, or Rudd.
Mr Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, said last week that Dr Rudd’s past comments about the former president were “nasty” and “maybe we want to choose somebody else”.
Nor will Trump likely be much impressed with Albanese’s grovelling to the CCP.
Mr Albanese – whose charm offensive to stabilise ties with China has been questioned by US officials – will head to the APEC and G20 summits in South America next week where Mr Trump’s win will dominate the talks. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Biden are expected to attend the summits in Peru and Brazil.
Former PM Scott Morrison is no doubt enjoying a healthy dose of schadenfreude at Labor’s predicament.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison, who struck a positive relationship with Mr Trump in office, said Labor would “have to be on its game” dealing with the returned president.
Albanese has so far been lucky that Trump is in a forgiving mood and their first phone call, he says, went well. Still, Albanese will be sweating bullets on the implications of the election for his own chances, next year.
Firstly, incumbency is clearly not an asset in the current situation of economic and housing crises. Especially not when your government presides over spiralling electricity prices and record-high immigration.
Secondly, with Labor (to date) banking everything on a negative campaign about Peter Dutton, it’s become obvious that voters are sick of that sort of thing.
The Democrats and their fellow travellers relentlessly ran the line that Trump was a fascist, a Nazi, a threat to democracy and a friend of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping. So exaggerated were these claims, so hysterical, that aspect of the Democrats’ campaign was completely disregarded.
Another important lesson is that pandering to identity politics and ethnic groups isn’t a winner any more, either. Black men and Hispanics voted for Trump in record numbers. Worse for Albanese, who desperately needs the Muslim voters of Western Sydney, the race in Michigan shows that Muslims will always, always put the ‘ummah’ ahead of whichever country they happen to reside in – and punish anything short of full-throated anti-Israel hate. They won’t vote for the coalition, who’ve staunchly stood by Israel, but they won’t buy Albanese and Wong’s half-hearted pandering, either.
