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Malcolm Turnbull has renewed his attacks on Donald Trump but this time has warned that US Vice President JD Vance could give Western allies more to fear in the future. The former prime minister accused the US President of being more aligned with Russian despot Vladimir Putin than Western allies in a ‘sovereignty and security forum’ at the National Press Club in Canberra on Monday. The comments, which were heard by government bureaucrats, military chiefs and ambassadors, marked a familiar refrain from Mr Turnbull, who has repeatedly turned his guns on Trump in recent weeks.
But perhaps more eye-catchingly, the former Liberal leader warned that Trump’s America-first ‘MAGA’ movement was not a flash in the pan – and might even intensify in years to come. ‘Some people in this town, speaking from their heart more than their head, will tell you that this is all just froth and bubble and normal transmission will resume if not soon, certainly in four years. We shouldn’t be so sure,’ Mr Turnbull said. ‘Look at the young men, including the vice president (who is) said to be the future of the modern movement.
‘We should not assume that America first, Trump-style is going to evaporate any time soon.’ Vance has been widely touted as a frontrunner for the Republican candidacy in 2028 when Trump’s second presidency ends. At just 40 years old, he is almost half Trump’s age.
In his short time in office, Vance has made headline-grabbing interventions on foreign policy. These include berating European leaders for allegedly failing to defend free speech and for haranguing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the now-infamous Oval Office stoush. This antagonistic approach now means, according to Mr Turnbull, that Australia cannot rely on the US as it once did on the international stage.
‘We cannot allow our affection for America and Americans, our long shared history, to blind us from the objective reality that the United States has political values under this administration more aligned to the “might is right” world view of Mr Putin than they are to ours,’ Mr Turnbull said. Asked about Mr Turnbull’s recent comments at a press conference on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he wouldn’t ‘comment on all of the views of former prime ministers’.
‘I speak for Australia and the Australian government’s position is that we continue to enjoy a strong relationship with the United States,’ Mr Albanese said. Turnbull argued Australia had become more reliant on the US just as the US was becoming a more unreliable ally. ‘So how do we in Australia recalibrate? Certainly, we need to do more, be more resilient and independent,’ Mr Turnbull said.
‘And yet, with an exquisitely bad timing, decisions in recent years have made us far more dependent on America, just as America was becoming less dependable.’ The mention of ‘decisions’ was a thinly-veiled reference to the $368 billion AUKUS submarine deal, which Mr Turnbull has regularly criticized. He has previously branded it a ‘dumb’ deal that is ‘one-sided’ and ‘so advantageous to the US’.
It is perhaps no surprise that Mr Turnbull is a critic of AUKUS. The deal, which was signed under Scott Morrison, completely scuttled the Turnbull-brokered deal to purchase submarines from France. But Mr Turnbull doubts the US will ever deliver the promised submarines. ‘In my view it is very unlikely Australia will ever receive any Virginia Class submarines regardless of who is President,’ Mr Turnbull told Daily Mail Australia earlier this month.
‘In fact, the decision would most likely be taken by the President after Mr Trump.’ Mr Turnbull’s anti-Trump comments follow his explosive intervention in the public debate earlier this month when he accused Trump of being ‘chaotic, rude, abrasive and erratic’. Trump hit back, accusing Mr Turnbull of being a ‘weak and ineffective leader’. ‘Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from “behind,” never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so,’ President Trump wrote on social media.
What is AUKUS?
AUKUS is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States aimed at deterring Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. Up to $368 billion will be spent on eight nuclear-powered submarines including three US Virginia-class nuclear submarines and a range of new SSN-AUKUS-class hybrid vessels. Australian submariners are already training in nuclear submarine technology in the US with the aim to eventually build the vessels on home soil by the 2040s.
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