President Trump slammed former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who suggested the second Trump administration will be good for China.
Mr. Turnbull, who served as prime minister from 2015 to 2018, which overlapped with Mr. Trump’s first term, said on Bloomberg Television that China will take “massive advantage” of Trump 2.0.
Mr. Trump fired back on social media.
“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. I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader, and obviously, Australians agreed with me!!!” Mr. Trump wrote late Sunday.
Mr. Turnbull predicted that China’s Xi Jinping will aim to be the “exact opposite” of Mr. Trump.
“Where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be steady,” he said. “And that will build trust with other countries. There will be many nations looking at China on one hand and Trump on the other, and they will find China a more attractive partner.”
“Trump is not just helping [Russian President] Vladimir Putin on the battlefield in Ukraine — which is bad enough — but by his own conduct, he is providing an opportunity for China to take a different approach than they did during Trump’s first term,” Mr. Trunbull said.
Mr. Trump has had a difficult relationship with the Australian leader. In 2017, he called a phone conversation he had with Mr. Turnbull “the worst call by far,” after telling him he had spoken with four other world leaders that day including Mr. Putin.
The two clashed over a refugee agreement from the Obama administration that saw the United States taking in over 1,200 refugees from an Australian detention center.
“Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!” he wrote on social media at the time.
