Upon arriving at the White House, the press asked the President if he had a message for the people of Australia.
‘We love them!’ said Donald Trump.
As to what the President hoped to achieve with the Australian Prime Minister, ‘A lot. Great things!’
President Donald J. Trump welcomes Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to the White House ????
REPORTER: "What is your message to the people of Australia?"@POTUS: "We love them." pic.twitter.com/cogAZnCUAa
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
The stage was set for a productive agenda with Albanese tagging along for the ride on his best behaviour with his Medicare card and ‘housing boy’ persona tucked safely out of sight.
Let’s begin by getting the Ambassador-shaped elephant out of the room.
The question of Kevin Rudd has been floating around ever since he made disparaging comments about Donald Trump, who then awkwardly regained the Presidency leaving Rudd red-faced. A smart Prime Minister would have quietly shuffled him out of the President’s way for the sake of good relations, but Rudd has persisted in the role and, with Donald Trump being distracted with major domestic restructuring, he was left alone.
Today, as many suspected, Donald Trump decided to feign ignorance of Ambassador Rudd and his comments. Painting the Ambassador as inconsequential might hurt a few feelings, but it appears to be a deliberate move by the President to shrug off former insults with a bit of (deserved) petty humour.
Donald Trump was asked by a journalist, ‘There has been concern in Australia that it has taken nine months to get this meeting, have you had any concerns with this administration with its stance on Palestine, Climate Change, or even things the Ambassador said about you in the past … the Australian Ambassador?’
Trump: ‘I don’t know anything about him. You said “bad” then maybe he’ll like to apologise. I really don’t know… Did the Ambassador say something bad about me? Don’t tell me? Where is he? Is he still working for you?’
Albanese: ‘Yeahhhhyeahhh.’
Rudd: ‘Before I took this position, Mr President-’
Trump: ‘I don’t like you either and I probably never will.’
Ruthless.
Although it was nothing compared to what one of the reporters copped.
Trump: ‘Where do you come from?’
Reporter: ‘Australia.’
Trump: ‘Who are you with?’
Reporter: ‘The Sydney Morning Herald.’
Trump: ‘Nasty guy. Go ahead.’
And his question was ‘nasty’ but Trump rescued Albanese’s vanity with class.
Donald Trump just utterly destroyed Kevin Rudd. pic.twitter.com/pvH9rY3c1H
— Daniel (@VoteLewko) October 20, 2025
Trump then had a few cross words to say to a cameraman who bumped into an historic mirror moved up from the vaults.
‘You’re not allowed to break that. That mirror is 400 years old.’
.@POTUS scolds the Fake News for hitting up against an historic mirror that was just moved into the Cabinet Room at the White House: "You gotta watch that… You're not allowed to break that. That mirror is 400 years old!" pic.twitter.com/QlWnyww5VW
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
Then we get down to the details… With Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, guarding Trump’s flank and Vice President JD Vance hemming Albanese in, the discussion turned to military ambitions, our status as allies, and the rare earths deal.
Trump said:
‘We are discussing critical minerals and rare earths. And we’re going to be signing an agreement that has been negotiated over a period of four to five months. And it was sort of good timing that we got it done just in time for the visit. And we worked together very much on rare earths, critical minerals, and lots of other things. And we have had a very good relationship. We have been working on that for quite a while. In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them. They be worth about $2. In the meantime, we are working with Australia and other countries are working with us too. But other countries also on that.
‘But we are really working on anything having to do with military. Military protection. Military ships, vehicles, guns, ammunition … everything. All of it.
‘We have been long-term, long-time allies and I would say there has never been anybody better, we have fought wars together. We never had any doubts. And it is a great honour to have you as my friend. And it is a great honour to have you in the United States of America.’
.@POTUS meets with Australian Prime Minister @AlboMP: "We're going to be here to talk about lots of different things… we are discussing critical minerals, and rare earths, and we're going to be signing an agreement that's been negotiated over a period of 4 or 5 months." pic.twitter.com/1wDJhLTmIm
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
Well yikes… The United States must be very very worried about the threat of communist China to give Anthony Albanese and his side-kick Ambassador Rudd such a massive free pass.
The behaviour of President Trump speaks volumes about the nature of risk Australia faces.
No wonder China was out causing trouble in the lead-up to this meeting.
.@POTUS signs a critical minerals deal with Australian Prime Minister @AlboMP:
"We're doing a real job on rare earth and many other things." pic.twitter.com/clwDafPPk5
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
‘Well, this is an $8.5 billion pipeline that we have ready to go,’ said Albanese.
For his part, Trump looked as though he was gritting his teeth and getting on with the job.
Of course, the President mentioned China many times, saying they had been ‘very respectful to us’ and that they were ‘paying tremendous amounts of money to us in the form of tariffs’.
‘They are not taking advantage anymore.’
The conversation then pivoted to sorting out ‘very fair deals’ with problematic countries.
Another member of the press asked how America could compete with China when they were ‘decades behind’.
‘No… No… You’ve been reading the wrong newspapers,’ Donald Trump corrected her.
‘We are way ahead of China militarily, the United States, way ahead of them, in every form of military other than the ability of building a lot of ships and we’ve got that started. We’ll be catching them on that. When it comes to weaponry, when it comes to AI … the big thing is AI. We are building more plants in this country than anyone ever imagined. We are going to have over $20 trillion of investment for this year. The most we ever had was a tiny fraction of that.’
He added, ‘We have weapons that a lot of people don’t even know about and I got them started four years ago. I rebuilt the military four years ago. Fortunately, because Biden didn’t do anything except give a piece of it away to Afghanistan.’
.@POTUS: "I think China’s been very respectful of us. They’re paying tremendous amounts of money to us in the form of tariffs. As you know, they’re paying 55% — that's a lot of money… China’s paying 55% and a potential 155% come November 1st unless we make a deal." pic.twitter.com/PWIrq0EiGt
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
.@POTUS: "I think when we finish our meetings in South Korea, China and I will have a really fair, and really great trade deal together. I want them to buy soybeans… It's going to be fantastic for both countries, and it's going to be fantastic for the entire world." pic.twitter.com/Pse4r817M0
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
‘Do you think Biden ever called [Xi Jinping]?’ asked the President, rhetorically. ‘Do you think Biden laid awake at night thinking about trade with China? He didn’t know what he was doing. He was an incompetent President.’
Trump was then interrogated over the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East while Albanese sat quietly out of frame.
Suffice to say, he wasn’t optimistic about Zelenskyy’s chances.
REPORTER: At the UN, you said that Ukraine could possibly win the war…@POTUS: "Well, they could. They could still win it. I don't think they will, but they could still win it… anything can happen. You know, war is a very strange thing." pic.twitter.com/d6Mgsp4X1k
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
He was then asked about the almost-break of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
‘If they keep doing it, then we’re going to go in and straighten it out and it will happen very quickly and pretty violently unfortunately.’
.@POTUS: "We have peace in the Middle East for the first time ever. We made a deal with Hamas that… They're gonna behave, they’re going to be nice, and if they’re not… we're going to eradicate them if we have to. They'll be eradicated — and they know that." pic.twitter.com/pqVYkbmSlH
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 20, 2025
President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Lunch with the Prime Minister of Australia https://t.co/bE5QGvpWUu
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 20, 2025
Albanese didn’t say much but he did nod at the right time and sign when paper was put in front of him.
He also managed to slip in the Aukus topic to get it on record in front of the cameras.
‘We can continue to take what is every opportunity to improve the relationship even further.’
While discussing weaponry and Australia’s relationship with America, Donald Trump stressed multiple times, and unusually, that ‘there haven’t been any games’ when it comes to the relationship.
Well, there have been, but it seems the implication is that those games will end immediately for the greater good of a necessary military alliance.
