Former Liberal Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull has taken to the pages of Foreign Affairs to warn America and the world about dealing with a possible second Trump presidency. Turnbull, who has made appearances on Trump-deranged MSNBC where he described Trump as a dictator-wannabee and an admirer of Vladimir Putin and other dictators, and who the BBC described as “cosmopolitan and progressive,” was Australia’s Prime Minister between 2015 and 2018. His essay is full of psychobabble about Trump being a “gaslighter,” a “bully” and “convinced of his own genius,” a leader who wants to be surrounded by “sycophants.” Trump, if he wins in November 2024, Turnbull writes, will “feel as invincible in his triumph as a Roman emperor, but he won’t have a slave by his side whispering, ‘Remember, you are mortal.’” Turnbull advises America’s allies to “stand up to the bullying” should Trump return to the White House.
Turnbull was Australia’s Communications Minister … who critics described as “Australia’s worst ever Communications Minister.”
Turnbull as Prime Minister called Communist China a “frenemy,” and in his memoir he calls China a “bully.” Back in 2011, Turnbull told an audience at the London School of Economics that China’s economic growth was nothing to worry about, and didn’t mean that it would also become a military threat. In the speech, he showed a fondness for quoting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman (who is nearly always wrong about China) and Barack Obama, both of whom welcomed China’s “peaceful” rise. “[I]t is important to note,” Turnbull said, “that China’s growth in power, both economic and military, has not been matched by any expansionist tendencies beyond reuniting Taiwan.” China’s approach toward trade, he remarked, “also argues for its rise to remain peaceful.” Nor was there any need to worry about China’s naval power. “Suggestions that China’s recent launch of one aircraft carrier and plans to build another are signs of a new belligerence are wide of the mark,” Turnbull said. “This is no time for another ‘long telegram’ or suggestions of containment,” Turnbull said. “China, unlike the Soviet Union, does not seek to export its ideology or system of government to other countries.”
Perhaps Turnbull should consult the people of Tibet or Hong Kong or Taiwan about that. China experts like Matthew Pottinger and Elbridge Colby, both of whom served in the Trump administration, know that while China may be more patient than Soviet leaders were, they are every bit as expansionist as their communist predecessors were in Russia. The Belt and Road Initiative, for example, involves China using its economic power and leverage to expand its geopolitical reach across Eurasia, into Africa, and even as far as Latin America.
Turnbull criticized Americans and Australians who recommended basing long-term strategic policy on a potential clash with China. He rejected the notion that Australia should base its defense planning and procurement on a possible naval war against China in the South China Sea. He welcomed China’s economic rise as being responsible for Australia’s prosperity. Even Turnbull had to admit in a 2017 speech in Singapore how wrong he had been to be so complacent about China. And he acknowledged in that speech that President Trump was right to expect Australia and other allies to pay more for their own defense.
Before becoming Prime Minister, Turnbull was Australia’s Communications Minister, where he earned the moniker the “Duke of Double Bay” and who critics described as “Australia’s worst ever Communications Minister” who engaged in an “audacious bid to end Tony Abbott’s political career and seize the Prime Ministership which he had desperately coveted for many years.”
According to Turnbull in his Foreign Affairs piece, he stood up to Trump the “bully” several times, and persuaded Trump to see things his (Turnbull’s) way and, therefore, won Trump’s respect. Why, one wonders, would Turnbull seek the respect of Trump “the bully” or Trump “the dictator?” And while Turnbull calls Trump “erratic,” some of Turnbull’s domestic critics called Turnbull “incoherent and inconsistent,” said his China policy was “absolutely all over the place,” and accused Turnbull of being “soft” on China. Is Malcom Turnbull really someone who other world leaders should take advice from about Donald Trump or anything else?
The Trump administration, as Josh Rogin explained in Chaos Under Heaven, shifted U.S. foreign policy in a confrontational direction toward China, adopting a whole of government approach to dealing with the global threat posed by Communist China. Instead of being “erratic” and “all over the place” like Turnbull, the Trump administration actually pivoted to the Indo-Pacific, much to the benefit of our friends down under. Perhaps a little gratitude is in order from Australia’s former leader.
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