Donald Trump has admitted he has no idea who Peter Dutton is while praising Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for being ‘very nice’ to him.
Quizzed about the n election result outside the White House on Monday morning, the US President said: ‘Albanese, I’m very friendly with.
‘I don’t know anything about the election… the man that won is very good.’
Asked about Albanese’s previous comments that Trump’s across-the-board 10 per cent tariffs were ‘not the act of a friend’, Trump said: ‘I can only say he’s been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me.
‘I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him.
‘We’ve had a very good relationship.’
The PM later revealed he had spoken to Trump following his re-election victory.
‘I had a very warm and positive conversation about President Trump just a short while ago while I was at the Lodge,’ he said on Monday morning.
‘I thanked him for his very warm message of congratulations. We talked about AUKUS and tariffs.
‘We will continue to engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future.
‘But it was very warm… And I thanked him for reaching out in such a positive way as well.’
The PM was then asked when he will visit the United States and whether a June trip is on the cards.
Albanese declined to answer directly but added: ‘I’ll make an announcement when we have an announcement.’
Trump avoided addressing the suggestion his presidency had contributed to a drop in Coalition support.
Dutton has never met Trump and is now not particularly likely to after losing the election and his own seat of Dickson on Saturday night.
A Daily Mail -Ipsos poll carried out during the campaign found that voters saw the Coalition as narrowly better than Labor at handling Trump, 32 per cent to 29 per cent.
But a local backlash to Trump’s agenda is widely seen as a factor in Dutton’s election wipeout.
The Coalition had shown signs of mirroring some Trump policies such as an attack on working from home arrangements for public servants.
Later during the campaign, Dutton had sought to distance himself from Trump’s agenda.
But the coalition was criticised for its policies to cut 41,000 public servants and name NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as spokeswoman for government efficiency – similar to Mr Trump’s policies.
Senator Price also made headlines when she called to ‘make great again’, referencing Trump’s election slogan.
Trump’s policies were a key factor in the recent election in Canada, which returned its centre-left government and punished the right-wing opposition, with its leader losing his House of Commons seat.
Albanese and Dutton had campaigned on who would be best placed to deal with the Trump White House, following the president’s imposition of tariffs on US allies.
Dutton suggested during the election that he would be able to get a phone call with the president to secure a better deal.
While Mr Trump hasn’t put out an official statement congratulating Mr Albanese, like other world leaders, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media after the election outcome.
‘ is a valued US friend and a close partner,’ he said on X, formerly Twitter.
‘We look forward to continuing to promote freedom and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.’
The US has imposed a 10 per cent base tariff on n goods imports and 25 per cent on aluminium and steel.