America’s political leadership is sensitive to criticism. We know this. High-ranking individuals within the Administration have told us. This has been the default state of political leaders throughout human history, even though it is sometimes concealed from the public.
At least Donald Trump is transparent about the rules of engagement.
Before demanding Australia abandon America, shut Pine Gap, dissolve Aukus, and pivot toward Asia – as the Greens and fringe independent voices have done on social media this week – we would be wise to remember that China is more sensitive than America.
Read the childish replies from official CCP representatives. They make Trump look like Cicero.
Most people are not aware of China’s unhinged rhetoric because MSM rarely quotes them for reasons known only to their paymasters.
For example…
In 2021, during the hundred-year anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, officials shared a video advocating for the ‘continuous’ nuclear bombing of Japan if it attempted to defend Taiwan. The five-minute video proposed a ‘Japan Exception Theory’ to allow China to break its ‘no first use’ nuclear weapons policy. To quote the video: ‘When we liberate Taiwan, if Japan dares to intervene by force, one plane or one ship, we will not only return fire, but also start a full-scale war against Japan. First, we will use nuclear bombs. We will continue to use nuclear bombs until Japan offers its second unconditional surrender. We want to strike Japan’s capacity to endure war. As soon as Japan recognises that it cannot afford to pay the price of war, it will not dare send troops to the Taiwan Strait.’ China keeps tight control of its internet, but it let this go through. Japan took the video very seriously and since then has sought to escalate its military relationship with America.
Let’s agree that America, the world’s most powerful military force and loyal Western ally, is important to the future of Australian defence as the world enters a period of geopolitical instability.
Like all countries, America has problems that it needs to solve.
It has been white-anted by its government, bureaucrats, and greedy companies for decades.
American debt has reached a sliding-doors moment where either America takes radical steps to save itself, or it falls on its sword after which the American Dream rots into nothing and the communist wolves tear apart nations such as Australia. The American vacuum of power will be filled with terror and poverty. It is Pandora’s Box with its lid shuffled about by idiotic Australian politicians who get a kick from tempting fate.
Donald Trump came to power promising to fight against the tide of decline.
That was his pledge to Americans. He has a mandate for reform.
America’s allies have been given plenty of notice about this priority change.
As we have seen, some have jumped to capitalise on the pro-investment stance of the Trump Administration. There are opportunities for prosperity everywhere. The rest remain stuck and increasingly uncomfortable as Trump’s trade dance reveals the open secret that free trade was never free.
It was, at best, a platitude that the diplomatic class bandied around at champagne conferences while working-class industries collapsed and wealth creation moved offshore.
As with robbing a bank, so-called free trade was a one-off wealth transfer. It enjoyed popular support while people were taking a cut of the golden river, but that has dried up. There are no industries left to refill the vaults. No pools of gold. Free trade was never free, it had a price, and that price was our industrial wealth.
You cannot be a capitalist society without capital.
Trump needs America to make money. He needs to give the working-class jobs. Those jobs need to generate private wealth, not public subsidy. The machine of America has to start moving again.
When America is rich, the West is safe. Seeing this as a threat or a hostility is an enormous geopolitical error from leaders who are focused on personal election prospects rather than the future security of the nations.
While Trump’s tariff sheet is not an accurate picture of tariffs placed on America by its trading partners, it is a good approximation of the combination of tariffs and taxes which combine to disadvantage America.
The European Union is one of the worst offenders. Globally known as a pain in the arse to deal with and comically unfair, Ursula von der Leyon has been out trying to justify the EU’s trade position while the social media comment sections fill with outraged citizens pointing out that the EU has brought this on themselves. The stories posted by business owners explain perfectly the nightmare of taxes, duties, and paperwork. The tyranny of EU pencil pushers has been exposed and we can only hope the sunlight will destroy them.
Australia shouldn’t be having a problem with America right now.
An average businessman (but evidently not a former Prime Minister or Ambassador) could have managed a deal to side-step Trump’s tariffs.
For those who say that America gets more out of our trade relationship than Australia, ask yourself what Australia gets out of our defence relationship and how much money it would take to replace America. China won’t touch Australia with America at our side, but watch what happens if we take the terrible advice of ignorant, historically illiterate, and sheltered creatures who think their personal experience with China relates to the military reality of Beijing’s ambition.
What I am saying is we cannot calculate the value of America’s defence because its absence creates an existential threat.
We owe them more than we can replay and we are lucky that the balance sheet is measured in trust and not dollar figures.
Friendship, kind words, and understanding for the position that America is in, economically, would have been enough. But politicians in this country, past and present, have won elections on the notion of Australia First and Australia Powerful. Which is fine for a domestic election cycle but utterly untrue in the real world where these same political leaders failed to back up their claims with actual weapons and economic power.
When high-profile people run their mouths in public and catch the attention of the American leadership on social media, it does not do this country any favours, particularly when those charged with sorting the problem out, namely Ambassador Rudd, are failing.
At the moment we have silence from the people who should be speaking and too much noise from the people who should be taking a break and heading off to their harbourside mansion.
Imagine how frustrating it is to come across a post on X from General Mike Flynn with a video of former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull playing Trump up for laughs at the National Press Club. Flynn wrote:
‘Australia’s Turnbull is a complete and total A$$h0!e. @realDonaldTrump do not deal with this scumbag. He’s telling the majority of Americans that we have no idea what we’re doing.’
Malcolm Turnbull replied to Flynn saying:
‘Suggest you watch the whole speech or you can read it on my website General. I think you do know what you are doing which is why your Congress was smart enough to say that no subs would be transferred to Australia unless your navy could spare them. Smart deal. You get $3bn from Australia and no obligation to transfer us a sub unless President certifies it won’t degrade your subsea capability.’
Then he copy-pasted a bit of the legislation. Thrilling.
On the eve of Liberation Day, would it have killed Mr Turnbull to keep his opinions to himself?
I listened to Mr Turnbull’s Defending Democracy podcast/speech. Here is something else he should not have said in an episode titled, Is Trump all froth and bubble?
‘For 80 years, we have regarded our great ally, the United States of America, as having shared values and shared interests. Well, not all interests were aligned all the time, but certainly we felt the values were. It’s very hard to say that today.
‘Donald Trump plainly does not believe in the International Rules-Based Order. He sought to reconcile with Vladimir Putin to the point of temporarily cutting off military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine. He has used the vast might of the United States, not to pressure the invader to come to the negotiating table, but rather to kneecap the ability of the heroic, wronged victim of aggression to resist.
‘At the same time, he has imposed, or threatened to impose, crippling tariffs on Canada with the express stated purpose of compelling Canada to become the 51st State of the United States. He said, repeatedly, that Canada should not exist as an independent country and the border is fictional. Canada has been a loyal ally and peaceful neighbour of the United States. It is thanks to a free trade agreement, renewed by Mr Trump in 2017, thoroughly integrated into the North American economy. It is a member of Nato.
‘Mr Trump’s claim to Canada and his effort to annex it sounds far too similar to Vladimir Putin’s claim that Ukraine is not a real company uh country and that its border is fictional and so on.’
Yes, that was Mr Turnbull making a serious comparison between Trump’s jokes about Canada to Russia’s military action against Ukraine.
He then adds:
‘We cannot allow our affection for America and Americans, our long shared history, to blind us from the objective reality that the United States has political values under this Administration more aligned to the might is right view of Mr Putin than they are to ours, or indeed, to any of Trump’s modern predecessors, whether they are Republican or Democrat.’
Setting aside Mr Turnbull’s misinterpretation of colourful political language, jokes, and joshing, his words comparing Trump to Putin are wholly offensive to our greatest ally that has, despite Mr Turnbull’s ramblings, brought Putin to the negotiating table. A task the entire world’s progressive leadership has failed to do despite being given ample time.
Trump did not create Putin, the weakness of ‘better behaved’ progressive globalists did. Their carelessness and deliberate erosion of Western power empowered Russia and China to reach out their arms and embrace, without consent, their neighbours.
Australia could be part of America’s trade solution and future geopolitical peace. Or, we could go and join the collective problem made up of Canada, the European Union, and the UK.
So far we’re limping along behind everyone with no clue who to follow.
Flat White is written by Alexandra Marshall. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.