‘The United States,’ opined former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd back in early 2021, ‘has been run by a village idiot’. Not much room for doubt, then, about the esteem Mr Rudd – who is now Australia’s ambassador to the USA – holds President Donald Trump in. But in case there were any doubt, Mr Rudd has repeatedly over the years either blurted out or tweeted his opinions of Mr Trump. These included that Mr Trump is ‘a traitor to the West’, ‘increasingly incompetent’, ‘incoherent’ and ‘in love with dictators’. That’s on the personal side. On the political side, according to Mr Rudd, the US President ‘represents a political liability for both sides of Australian politics’, is ‘an objective problem for the world, for the region, for my country’ and is ‘the most destructive president in history’ who ‘drags America and democracy through the mud’.

Tell us what you really think, Kev.

Of course, it is unlikely that President Trump is particularly aware of this little man who holds such negative opinions of him. Mr Trump is, after all, the leader of the free world and a President who won in an historic landslide and whose popularity continues to soar. Mr Rudd, on the other hand, and despite all the ‘Kevin 07’ hoop-la, was an absolute failure as a national leader. The only comparison between Mr Trump and Mr Rudd is that both became leader twice. Mr Trump won two (some say three) amazing victories. Mr Rudd was dumped by his own party then dumped again by the electorate. Not quite the same thing.

The term ‘projecting’ is often used to describe the modern left, in other words they accuse their opponents of what they themselves are actually guilty of. With that in mind, who does the term ‘village idiot’ sit more comfortably with – the man who brought peace to the Middle East, settled the Congo-Rwanda war, brought jobs and manufacturing back to his shores, has seen stock markets soar to new heights and stopped illegal immigration or the bloke who decided that ‘climate change is the greatest moral challenge of our times’ and who then decided to set up a scheme to install pink batts into peoples’ roof cavities, a policy which led to the death of four young Queensland men? Let us know when you’ve figured it out.

Likewise, who could best be described as ‘incoherent’ and ‘a political liability’? The man who used to waffle on about ‘programmatic specificity’ whilst yelling at his staff and the odd airline stewardess for their perceived incompetences or the man who promised to make his nation great again and who on most measures appears to be doing just that? Again, take your time.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who, in one of his few honest moments admitted that Mr Trump ‘scares the sh-t’ out of him, thought it was a good idea to appoint the comical character of Mr  Rudd to represent Australian interests to our closest ally. Hmmm. Interesting choice, PM. Or as Sir Humphrey might put it, ‘courageous’. Whether that choice shows the Prime Minister’s low opinion of Americans or of Australia’s interests in America is a moot point. Regardless, it was always obvious that Mr Rudd was a woeful choice for ambassador.

Mr Rudd is regarded by many (especially his former colleagues) as not only a ‘psychopathic narcissist’ (copyright Labor ex-premier Kristina Keneally), but also such charming descriptions as a megalomaniac, a bully, a brat and a bastard. One former minister said he would rather chew his arm off than work for Mr Rudd again. Whichever way you slice it, these are not the ideal attributes for a critical, sensitive diplomatic role.

Australia’s repugnant Foreign Minister, the anti-Israeli Penny Wong, has been wandering around Washington thinking she can repair the relationship, and somehow ingratiate Mr Rudd and by extension Mr Albanese into the President’s good books, or at least, his diary. Thus far, no such luck.

On a side note, it is worth remembering that this magazine repeatedly advised former opposition leader Peter Dutton to hop on a plane to Washington and take advantage of the many contacts conservatives have with the Trump administration to tee up a meeting with Mr Trump. In what can only be viewed as one of the most self-destructive and insane cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), the Liberals decided to go along with Labor’s ‘sneer campaign’ and dismiss Mr Trump and his Make America Great Again agenda, going so far as to force Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to resile from her desire to ‘Make Australia Great Again’. To date, new opposition leader Sussan Ley appears to be treading the same path.

The Canberra media-political bubble is a farce, and those politicians who think they can get away with treating our American ally and the leader of the free world with condescension and contempt – or simply ignoring him – shame this great nation of ours with their petty foolishness.

Mr Rudd must be urgently replaced with someone more suited to the role of US ambassador to Trump’s America. But Kevin is just a pathetic symptom. The disease is the chronic and all-pervasive TDS of our political elites, Labor and Liberal alike, which has done such avoidable but enormous damage to our national interest.