VIDEO: Trump to Australian ambassador: 'I don't like you either'

theguardian.com International News Oct - 21 - 2025 , 07:37 5 minutes read

“I don’t like you either. And I probably never will,” US President Donald Trump told Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd at the White House cabinet room table.

It was the testiest and most uncomfortable remark at a typically freewheeling and chaotic presidential press conference.

But it was quickly followed by laughter across the packed room: the guffaws coming as if a pressure valve had been released in Australian government and diplomatic circles.

A half-hour later, following a remarkably drama-free and warm meeting between Trump and the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, Rudd was heard to apologise to the president, leaning over the table to say sorry to the man he called a “village idiot” four years ago.

Trump, according to Australian sources in the room, told Rudd “all is forgiven” after the media filed out.

In a gilded room adorned with portraits of presidents past, under gleaming chandeliers and flanked by golden crown moulding, the silver-tongued president didn’t seem too fussed about controversial comments from the snowy-haired Australian ambassador.

For a year, conservative critics had catastrophised that Trump had put Australia in the diplomatic cooler because he’d been boiling with rage about critical comments made by Rudd in 2021.

But face to face with the former prime minister inside the White House cabinet room, Trump appeared to not recognise Rudd, or even remember the comments – let alone allow it to sour the extraordinarily positive attitude he took with Albanese, showering praise on the Australian leader.

In a press conference Trump spoke approvingly of a sharp haircut on an Australian reporter before calling another journalist a “nasty guy”, signed a major critical minerals deal with Albanese in his signature thick black texta pen, and careened from criticising “incompetent” predecessor Joe Biden to threatening Hamas with “eradication” to praising the “flawless” American strike on Iranian nuclear bases.

The brief interaction over Rudd – that left Albanese laughing – was sparked by an Australian reporter asking the president about Rudd’s previous remarks.

“Did an ambassador say something?” Trump replied.

“I don’t know anything about him. If he said bad, maybe he’d like to apologise. Don’t tell me.”

Turning to Albanese, Trump in a half-joking tone asked: “Where is he? Is he still working for you?”

Albanese looked up, extending his finger across the table, just off to the right of Trump: “He’s right there.”

Cue faces turning towards Rudd, heretofore silent, almost unnoticed with his back towards the large media scrum packed inside the ornate room.

In November 2024, upon Rudd’s confirmation as Albanese’s pick for US ambassador, video emerged of the former PM in a 2021 interview describing Trump as “a village idiot” and “not a leading intellectual force”. It later emerged Rudd deleted old social media posts criticising Trump, and a senior adviser to Trump reposted Rudd’s congratulatory statement to Trump on social media with a gif of an hourglass.

If Trump had been stewing on Rudd’s previous criticisms, his attitude didn’t betray that displeasure. Trump, famously, is not one to keep quiet when he feels insulted. But he appeared to not even notice Rudd – distinctive in his snowy hair and trim beard – sitting barely 2 metres away.

“You said bad?” Trump asked.

Rudd, piping up, began to say: “Before I took this position, Mr President … ” before being cut across by Trump.

“I don’t like you either, and I probably never will,” he said, to loud laughter in the room, before immediately moving to another question.

It’s unclear if Trump genuinely didn’t recognise or remember Rudd, or feigned ignorance out of theatricality. But Albanese himself was among those chuckling.

Trump often holds grudges, inventing and repeating juvenile nicknames for those he feels have wronged him. But he also has a record of putting aside past slights: case in point, Trump’s former presidential rival Marco Rubio. At one stage dismissed as “little Marco” and a “nasty guy”, Rubio today sat at Trump’s left hand during the meeting, as the US secretary of state.

If that was the toughest moment of Albanese’s long-awaited face-to-face meeting with Trump, the Australian delegation will breathe a sigh of relief. Trump strongly backed Aukus, seemed to wave away concerns from his own war secretary Pete Hegseth that Australia should vastly boost its defence spending, and signed an agreement on critical minerals said to be worth billions.

As the reporters filed out of the press conference, Rudd could be seen leaning towards Trump; cameras didn’t catch it, but one member of the media recounted that the ambassador offered an apology.

It was hard to pick the tone of Trump’s assessment of Rudd, but it appeared flippant, humourous and not particularly poisonous. It could have been far worse.

Albanese – and Rudd – would have been glad to get out without any more drama than that.

Watch the video below;