Malcolm Fraser probably imagined he was part of the in-crowd in Washington after Gerald Ford had him over for the Bicentennial of America in 1976.
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The very next year, however, the latest president, Jimmy Carter, welcomed Fraser to the White House by referring to him as “John” – Fraser’s real first name that was never used.
Bob Hawke and George Bush Sr mightn’t have seemed natural ideological allies, but they got along just fine after Hawke went to Washington and took pains to tell Bush he didn’t represent the “left wing” of the Labor Party.
John Howard and George Bush Jr? No trouble there once Howard invoked the ANZUS Treaty after having been in Washington when a hijacked jet smashed into the nearby Pentagon and two others brought down the Twin Towers in New York on what became known as 9/11.
Bush called Howard a “man of steel”. Howard got called Bush’s “deputy sheriff” by The Bulletin magazine, and modestly, he didn’t deny it. The result? Australian troops spent the next 20 years fighting alongside Americans in Afghanistan and eight years in Iraq before it was decided to call the whole damn thing off.
Scott Morrison, a man not unfamiliar with the art of fawning, got the glad-handing treatment from Donald Trump during his first presidency.
Morrison was one of only two foreign leaders to be hosted to a state dinner at Trump’s first White House. The other was for French President Emmanuel Macron, and we really shouldn’t mention him in the same breath as Morrison lest the word “liar” be repeated. Macron, you may recall, was deeply unimpressed when Morrison cancelled a multibillion-dollar submarine contract and replaced it with AUKUS, of which Albanese is now so enthused.
Happy memories of Morrison’s visit to the White House dimmed after it was revealed that he had pushed hard for the then leader of the Hillsong Pentecostal Church, Brian Houston – who he once described as his spiritual mentor – to be included on the guest list for the state dinner.
It turned out that the White House refused to have Houston on the guest list, possibly because he was under investigation for allegedly concealing his father’s child sexual abuse.
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Houston was later cleared. But Morrison didn’t help himself by dodging questions for months about whether he had tried to have Houston invited, claiming it was nothing more than “gossip”, before finally admitting that yes, indeed, it was true.
And now, Rudd finds himself in the frame for spoiling the Trump-Albanese love-fest at the White House.
It’s not often, we’d imagine, that an ambassador has found it necessary to withdraw and apologise, direct to a president’s face, for having in the past called him “the most destructive president in history” and “a traitor to the West”.
It is surely less common for a president to tell an ambassador – who happens to be a former Australian PM – that “I don’t like you either, and I probably never will”.
There was, naturally, much awkward laughter.
This being an unusually jolly occasion, Trump added: “All is forgiven.”
There wasn’t a person in the room, however, who could be unaware that Trump has a long memory and little appetite for forgiveness.
Poor Kevin. The mortification!
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