Australia PM says ambassador Rudd doing ‘great job’ after fresh Trump comments

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SYDNEY (Reuters) -Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected on Sunday questions about whether Australia’s ambassador in Washington was becoming a problem, after local media reported fresh remarks made about Kevin Rudd by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Labor leader Albanese is a supporter of Rudd, a former Labor prime minister, who called Trump in 2020 “the most destructive president in history,” later deleting the comment from social media when he was appointed ambassador.

Albanese, who this week signed a critical minerals deal with the U.S. at a summit in Washington, has endorsed Rudd as doing a “fantastic job” as envoy, describing comments by Trump at the summit that he does not like the ambassador as “light-hearted”.

On Sunday local media reported that Trump, on Friday night Washington time, said of Rudd: “I think he said a long time ago something bad. You know, when they say bad about me, I don’t forget.”

Asked on Australia’s Seven Network television if Rudd’s role was becoming a problem, Albanese said: “No, it’s not.”

“Kevin Rudd’s doing a great job as ambassador,” he added, according to a transcript.

Albanese has praised the ambassador’s work to build support for the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal in Congress and to prepare for his first summit with Trump, which Australia has declared a success.

Australia’s main conservative opposition party called for Rudd to be sacked after Trump made the initial comments about the ambassador at a media conference in Washington on Monday.

Rudd swept to power as prime minister in 2007 as a Mandarin-speaking progressive, returning centre-left Labor to office after a decade in opposition. He was dumped by his party in 2010 but returned as prime minister briefly in 2013.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)