Now that Donald Trump is the inevitable Republican candidate for the US presidency, countries everywhere need to prepare. Can Australia Trump-proof itself somehow?
Some of Australia’s most senior officials have turned to Mike Green for his advice in recent weeks. Green is an American politico-policy expert who relocated to Australia a couple of years ago to run the US Studies Centre at Sydney University.
Donald Trump’s notorious phone call with Malcolm Turnbull was a setback for the Australia-US relationship.Credit: AP
The bad news about a second Trump presidency: “It’d be terrible,” he tells me. The good news: “It wouldn’t be as terrible as people think.”
Green is one of a particular Washington type; hyperconnected, hypersmart, hyperactive, hypertalkative. He’s also a character. He speaks Japanese, he’s worked for a Japanese politician and has a black belt in the Japanese sword martial art of iaido. But before you pigeonhole him, he’s also an expert on the bagpipes.
He worked in the White House leading Asia policy for George W. Bush, but he would never work in a Trump White House.
He was one of 50 “never Trumpers” – national security officials, all of whom had worked for Republican presidents – who published a full-page letter in the New York Times to warn voters that Trump would be “the most reckless president in American history”. They got that right.
CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Green, is a “never-Trumper”. Credit: AFR
So what advice has Green given Canberra? First thing, he says, “is what not to do – do not panic like the Europeans. They have more reason to worry than Australia or Japan.” Because Trumpworld, as he calls it, and the America First ideology are rooted in an anti-European history going back to the 19th century.
“Europe represents everything they hate – open immigration, progressive social policy like gay marriage and abortion, the growth of the bureaucracy and the weakening of the state.”
How terrible would a second Trump presidency be for Australia? Terrible enough
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11.03.2024
Now that Donald Trump is the inevitable Republican candidate for the US presidency, countries everywhere need to prepare. Can Australia Trump-proof itself somehow?
Some of Australia’s most senior officials have turned to Mike Green for his advice in recent weeks. Green is an American politico-policy expert who relocated to Australia a couple of years ago to run the US Studies Centre at Sydney University.
Donald Trump’s notorious phone call with Malcolm Turnbull was a setback for the Australia-US........
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