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JJ Harrison
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CPI comparison Australia is absolutely furious at Donald Trump and his regime. Prime Minister Anthony Albinisi of the Labor Party will be meeting right now with China with his counterpart Xi Jinping and others. You will recall that Anthony Albanese had a very important meeting with Donald Trump at the G. They were planning to meet for a long time. The Outcast deal, the trilateral between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States that deals with military defense, specifically nuclear deterrence, has been a critical issue for Australia. Donald Trump's Defense Department has pretty much threatened to pull the United States out of Aukus, which would leave Australia very vulnerable. And the United States has engaged in a lot of hostile action with Australia, even though the United States won longtime allies with Australia in normal times, non Trump regime authoritarian times. And also the United States has a trade surplus with Australia as well. So Donald Trump snubs Anthony Albanese and lots of world leaders. It wasn't just Anthony Albanese. It was also Prime Minister Modi of India. It was also Prime Minister Ashiba of Japan and so many other world leaders who had critical meetings with Donald Trump at the G7. He couldn't be bothered. He rushed home. He spoke to Vladimir Putin on the phone. You remember all of that. So the world's moving on right now. And I understand that in Australia, the opposition party, their right wing party in Australia as the Midas mates, as the Midas down under. No, but I'm telling the other, the American audience here, the Liberal Party in Australia is their right wing, kind of far right wing conservative party. The Labor Party is their center left kind of liberal party, as you would think about it. So the opposition party is all up in arms saying, Anthony Albanese, how could you not meet with Donald Trump? You should do. Donald Trump's a crazy person, okay? He's a crazy authoritarian who's trying to destroy the United States. There's no logic. There's nothing that the Albani government could have done. I mean, look Kevin Rudd, who's getting crap for it, the old prime minister and current ambassador to the United States from Australia, Ambassador Rudd, former Prime Minister Rudd, he held a meeting with Donald Trump back in January which now everyone's like, what went down at that meeting? What was happening at that meeting? You know, and at the end of the day it's kind of like contradictory, right? Because the opposition is like, why would you meet with him in January? You should be meeting with him now. I mean, at the end of the day, I think Australia saw what was coming. Kevin Rudd was a former prime minister. He tried to get ahead of it and you can't get ahead of it with Donald Trump. So at any rate, you've got Prime Minister Albanese going to China, big meeting right here. Let me show you how it's being reported in Australia. This is from 7News. You'll hear in this clip from Albany. You'll see some of the other conflicts that I just kind of talked about. What the opposition, the Liberal Party's making a big deal about. Again, remember when you hear Liberal Party, that's the far right wing party in Australia. And just, just take a listen. If you can hear, play this clip.
Isabel Mullen
Well, in less than 24 hours, our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will leave for Beijing for his second visit to China as pm. Live now to our political reporter Isabel Mullen in Canberra, is it. Good afternoon. Trade, of course, is very high on the agenda.
Tash
It is Taj. Good afternoon. Anthony Albanese will be leaving the country with a delegation of Australian businesses and universities. He was out early in Sydney this morning spruiking our trading relationship with Beijing, a relationship that fell apart under the Morrison government. We did see a ban on some Australian exports to China, but that resumed before the federal election. Regardless, the federal opposition is slamming Anthony Albanese for visiting China for the second time. Before pulling off that meeting with Donald.
Penny Wong
Trump in Washington, around about 25% of our exports go to one destination, China, bigger than the next four of our partners combined of Japan, South Korea, the United States and India. The relationship with China means jobs in Australia. It's as simple as that.
Isabel Mullen
And Izzy, this comes, of course, as the federal opposition demands more information about an interesting golf meeting between Kevin Rudd and Donald Trump in January.
Tash
Yes, it does. That meetings. That meeting rather happened on the sidelines of a golf day in Florida at one of Donald Trump's golf courses. But as you said, no public meeting, no public disclosure rather, of what was discussed there on the sidelines. Now, the federal opposition says that's a problem, particularly as we stare down the barrel of more tariffs, 200 on pharmaceuticals, 50% on aluminium and steel, and 10% on everything else.
Penny Wong
Was this a meeting that went for 30 seconds or 30 minutes? Did it go well or did it go badly?
Host or Narrator
Have there been any subsequent conversations or meetings between the ambassador and the president? This is our most important relationship at our most important time in history and we need more transparency.
Tash
The prime minister insists a meeting will happen, Tash, and in the meantime, he'll be strengthening other relationships like our one with China.
Host or Narrator
Now, I'll give you just another perspective. Another media outlet outlet from Sky News Australia. And what they're talking about is that one of the things that China wants to achieve in these discussions with Australia is to distance Australia from the United States. As you heard in the prior clip, 25% of the trade that Australia does is with China. And it would be a big win for China to try to push Australia closer to it. And you'll see China is trying to do the same thing with Japan, with South Korea, whereas former President Biden and other presidents of the past made a very big deal about building relationships in Asia, building relationship with Australia, not this regime. You're also going to hear in this clip that I'm about to play you from Senator Penny Wong, very popular in Australia, the foreign minister, the minister of foreign affairs. Let's take a listen to this clip right here. Let's play it.
Penny Wong
Well, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has expressed her concerns over China surging military capabilities ahead of the prime minister's trip to Beijing this weekend. The senator, who's in Malaysia attending the ASEAN Foreign ministers meeting, claims China's lack of transparency about nuclear and conventional military build up is becoming more concerning late to the program here. Well, she says President Donald Trump's Indo Pacific policies to counterweight China are necessary.
Isabel Mullen
A lot of discussion with Our friends in Southeast Asia, in ASEAN about the importance of us working together. And I talked about the importance of a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated. A region where, as I described it, there is a balance of power, which of course requires continued U.S. engagement.
Host or Narrator
Now, you'll notice what Foreign Minister Penny Wong was saying right there. She was at the ASEAN conference that was taking place in Malaysia. ASEAN stands for association of Southeast Asian nations, the regional organization with Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand formed through what's called the Bangkok Declaration. And nations like Australia show up and participate in these sidelines. Right? They're not a member of Asian, but they participate in the sidelines there. And you'll see Senator Penny Wong posting things like this. Today I met with China's Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of ASEAN's foreign ministers meeting in Malaysia. Australia will continue to incur. Engage with China to grow our relationship and navigate our differences while upholding our national interests. Or this photo right here. The foreign ministers of Japan, Australia and New Zealand sitting together. Real diplomacy is taking place. The world's moving on from the US and building relations with each other. They're actually doing deals with themselves while Donald Trump is writing letters. Deals among themselves while Donald Trump is writing letters.
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Host or Narrator
Senator Penny Wong also wrote, australia's relationship with Malaysia is based on mutual respect and a shared interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. It was an honor again to meet with the head of Malaysia again to discuss our partners as we celebrate 70 years of Australia's diplomatic ties with Malaysia and so on and so forth. Now, at the same time that was taking place, what was the Trump regime doing specifically directed at Malaysia? You had Nick Adams being appointed as the ambassador to Malaysia. So Donald Trump gave the biggest fu to Malaysia, mocking Malaysia, acting like Malaysia is not a valuable partner. And you see Malaysia hosting, hosting asean. Malaysia also separately hosted a meeting between Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia this week. And the United States just named Nick Adams, like literally the most unserious, embarrassing human being to become the ambassador to Malaysia. And this relates to my story of Australia because Adams is Australian and Australians wish that Adams was not Australian. They're happy he got pushed to the United States, yet the US has made this, this wacky individual crackpot. I don't know what to refer to this guy as, as the ambassador to Malaysia. Just to give you a taste of the types of things that Nick Adams says. I could show you hundreds of posts like this. He goes, when a woman is cooking dinner for me, this is how we split the responsibilities. She cooks, I eat, she cleans, I head to Hooters. That's it. And then he goes on to always talk about Hooters and how he's an alpha male. It's so embarrassing. I truly thought that it was a parody and that this was like a 20 year Borat skit. And one day he was just gonna say this was all one big prank. Like, here's a video he made of himself back on April 3, 2023. Remember when a transgender woman was posted a photo of herself drinking a Bud Light. So he went to the Bud Light factory and here's what he did. Here, play this clip.
Nick Adams
This is a solemn day in alpha male history. I am here in Dallas outside the Anheuser Busch facility and I cannot believe the betrayal that we are currently witnessing. This is Judas level betrayal of the alpha male community. And just a week before Easter, and.
Host or Narrator
Again, while very serious business is being talked about at ASEAN in Malaysia, Nick Adams posted this video announcing that he would be the new United States Ambassador to Malaysia. At the same time Malaysia's hosting asean. Do you realize what a big middle finger that is to Malaysia as they're hosting asean? I can't emphasize enough because I know that cable news here doesn't talk about stuff like this. But. But this is really saying to Malaysia and all of the ASEAN nations, f you here, play this clip.
Nick Adams
It is nothing short of a lifetime's honor to take the President's goodwill and spread it to the great people of Malaysia. It is, Mr. President, my honour to represent you and serve our nation before King Ibrahim Iskander and his people to His Majesty. I look forward to working with your government to strengthen ties between our friendly peoples.
Host or Narrator
And then let me show you Gareth Evans, former Foreign minister, also part of the Labor Party, was served a very long time as a foreign minister. But a while back, here he is. And this is being reposted by a Chinese think tank right here by Kim Du Shu. And here's what he says, that there's just no longer any affection in Australia for what people to perceive to be Trump's approaches here. Listen to what he says right here.
Penny Wong
There's a survey done by Lawyer Institute, I think, say Australians trust in the US has fallen to its lowest point in 20 years with only 36% of respondents saying they trust the US to act responsibly in the world. What's your take on that?
Political Analyst
Well, that's a dramatic falling away of some 20 percentage points, I think, in just a year. And obviously it's very directly attributable to President Trump. There is no affection in Australia at all for what people perceive to be Trump's approach to international relations, Trump's approach to democracy, Trump's approach to internal respect and protection, for civil liberties, for human rights. This is not a country that we've always believed in under the current administration. And it's no surprise that that confidence has dropped away. I mean, I mean, nobody knows what to expect from the Trump administration when it comes to international relations. There's three different strands at work. There's The America first isolationist divisions of spheres of influence. You do your thing, we'll do ours, and we don't want to get into any confrontational. No, that's one stream. Then there's the make America great again stream, which is restoring American preeminence, primacy, all that stuff with all that follows from that in terms of willingness to use force aggressively and in breach of international rule. And then there's the purely transactional, ego driven dimension where there's no obvious principles that are applicable at all except personal self interest. So this is an environment which everybody is finding rather spooky. Trump's own advisors don't know which way he's going to jump, so how can the rest of us know which way he's going to jump? So obviously there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unhappiness with the way the United States is going. Hopefully passage of time and a number of these policy decisions that Trump has been making will come back to bite him, including the economic ones and his own constituency. So hopefully over time we'll see some modification of behavior, but it's not surprising.
Host or Narrator
So that's a comprehensive update of everything that's going on in my view in Australia. To my Australian viewers. You know, tell me if you thought I got it right. I spend a lot of time speed. We have a lot of Midas mates, a lot of Midas down under. And it's important that I don't just do justice to the Australian news. Not just reported accurately, but I want to report it better than what the Australian local news is doing. As you know, with my Canadian report and how embedded we got in Canada and are we're going to be setting up a Midas in Canada, then I want to set up an official Midas in Australia as well. Let me know what you think. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million.
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Podcast Information:
In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas explore the heightened tensions between Australia and the United States under President Donald Trump's administration. The discussion delves into Australia's diplomatic challenges, trade relations, and shifting alliances, particularly focusing on the impact of Trump's policies on Australia's international stance.
The hosts begin by addressing the friction between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Trump. The Aukus alliance—a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—has become a point of contention. Trump's administration has threatened to withdraw from Aukus, significantly weakening Australia's defense capabilities.
Host: "Donald Trump's Defense Department has pretty much threatened to pull the United States out of Aukus, which would leave Australia very vulnerable." [01:33]
The potential collapse of the Aukus alliance poses a severe threat to Australia's national security, leaving the nation exposed without the critical military support previously guaranteed by the pact.
Australia's economy is heavily reliant on trade with China, which accounts for approximately 25% of its exports. This significant economic relationship complicates Australia's diplomatic maneuvers, especially under Trump's administration, which has taken a hostile stance towards China.
Penny Wong: "25% of our exports go to one destination, China, bigger than the next four of our partners combined of Japan, South Korea, the United States and India. The relationship with China means jobs in Australia." [05:32]
Prime Minister Albanese is actively seeking to rebuild and strengthen trade relations with China, a move met with both support and opposition within Australia. The Labor Party emphasizes the importance of this relationship for economic stability and job security.
Australia's opposition, the Liberal Party, has been vocally critical of Prime Minister Albanese's approach to both the United States and China. They argue that Albanese should adopt a firmer stance against Trump's policies rather than seeking engagement.
Host: "Donald Trump's a crazy person, okay? He's a crazy authoritarian who's trying to destroy the United States. There's no logic. There's nothing that the Albanese government could have done." [02:30]
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's meeting with Trump in January 2025 has become a focal point for criticism. The lack of transparency regarding the discussions during this meeting has fueled distrust and opposition rhetoric.
Host: "The federal opposition says that's a problem, particularly as we stare down the barrel of more tariffs, 200 on pharmaceuticals, 50% on aluminium and steel, and 10% on everything else." [06:35]
Australia is striving to balance its economic ties with China while maintaining strategic alliances with Western nations. Foreign Minister Penny Wong emphasizes the necessity of engaging with China to grow the relationship and navigate differences.
Penny Wong: "Australia will continue to engage with China to grow our relationship and navigate our differences while upholding our national interests." [07:57]
Australia actively participates in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings, aiming to foster a stable and prosperous regional environment. The hosts highlight China's efforts to strengthen its influence in Southeast Asia, potentially distancing Australia from traditional allies like the US.
Host: "Real diplomacy is taking place. The world's moving on from the US and building relations with each other." [08:47]
A significant portion of the episode discusses Nick Adams, the newly appointed US Ambassador to Malaysia. Adams has garnered negative attention due to his inappropriate and unprofessional remarks, which undermine diplomatic efforts.
Nick Adams: "When a woman is cooking dinner for me, this is how we split the responsibilities. She cooks, I eat, she cleans, I head to Hooters." [14:34]
Adams' behavior is seen as a major embarrassment, reflecting poorly on the US's diplomatic image and straining relations with Malaysia during crucial ASEAN meetings.
Host: "While very serious business is being talked about at ASEAN in Malaysia, Nick Adams posted this video announcing that he would be the new United States Ambassador to Malaysia." [15:05]
A survey conducted by the Lawyer Institute indicates a dramatic decline in Australian trust toward the United States, plummeting to its lowest level in 20 years at just 36%. This decline is largely attributed to Trump's unpredictable policies and leadership style.
Political Analyst: "There's three different strands at work... The America first isolationist, the make America great again stream, and the purely transactional, ego-driven dimension." [16:19]
The erosion of trust towards the US affects Australia's ability to collaborate effectively on international issues and undermines longstanding alliances.
The host emphasizes the importance of providing comprehensive and accurate coverage of Australian news, aiming to surpass local media's reporting standards.
Host: "It's important that I don't just do justice to the Australian news... I want to report it better than what the Australian local news is doing." [18:17]
With a growing Australian viewership, the hosts hint at expanding The MeidasTouch network into Australia and Canada, ensuring diverse and in-depth reporting on international affairs.
This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast provides a thorough analysis of the strained Australia-US relations under Trump's administration, Australia's economic dependencies, and the broader implications for regional diplomacy. Through engaging discussions and insightful commentary, the Meiselas brothers offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the complex geopolitical landscape shaping today's world.
Notable Quotes:
This structured summary encapsulates the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the full podcast.