Tick, tick, tick. Since Anthony Albanese chose Kevin Rudd to be Australia’s top diplomat in the United States, the former prime minister’s appointment has been a bomb waiting to explode. Now Donald Trump has lit the fuse, threatening to blow up Rudd’s diplomatic career in Washington and damage Australia’s most important security alliance.

Installing Rudd as Australia’s ambassador to the US was always a high-risk, high-reward gamble by Albanese. On the plus side, Rudd has a prodigious work ethic and a formidable intellect. His status as a world-renowned China expert promised a level of access in DC that other diplomats could not match.

Ambassador to Washington Kevin Rudd has previously called Donald Trump “the most destructive president in history”.Credit: Illustration: Marija Ercegovac

On the downside were Rudd’s scathing and numerous public criticisms of Trump. When Albanese announced Rudd as the next ambassador in December 2022, it was just a month after Trump had declared his candidacy for a second term in office. This raised an obvious problem given Rudd had excoriated Trump as “nuts”, called him “the most destructive president in history” and described him as a “traitor to the West”.

To be sure, many Australians would have agreed with Rudd’s comments and cheered them on after the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. Albanese himself had accused Trump of fomenting a “violent insurrection” and undermining democracy. Rudd’s comments, however, were far more personal, and it is he who is tasked with advancing Australia’s interests in Washington.

Bureaucrats in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade surely raised Rudd’s anti-Trump commentary as a potential problem when he was being considered for the role in 2022. But the plum position of ambassador is always the prime minister’s prerogative. Albanese was a steadfast ally to Rudd throughout Labor’s previous stint in office and wanted him to be Australia’s man in DC.

At that time, too, Trump’s return to power was a distant and doubtful prospect. The Democrats had performed surprisingly strongly in the midterm elections, boosting Joe Biden’s re-election prospects. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was gaining traction as a plausible Republican presidential candidate. Any Trump backlash to Rudd’s appointment could be put off until another day.

Now that day has arrived, thanks to, of all people, former United Kingdom Independence Party leader and Brexit champion Nigel Farage. In an interview with Trump, Farage informed the presumptive presidential candidate that Rudd had said “horrible things” about him.

“He won’t be there long if that’s the case,” Trump replied.