To be fair, Kevin Rudd has been called far worse, and by his own side of politics. So when Donald Trump was lured into insulting Rudd by that noted investigative journalist Nigel Farage, plenty of commentators shrugged their shoulders., a right-leaning British TV channel, on Tuesday. He openly admitted his questions about Rudd – now Australia’s US ambassador – were supplied by his friends at Sky News Australia.
The consensus was that it was just Trump being Trump – shooting off at the mouth, attacking with ferocity anyone who attacks or challenges him. This is true, but it is still worth noting how extraordinary it is that we have come to accept such behaviour as ordinary. Dutton went on to say that the prime minister “knew all of the risks that he was facing when he decided to appoint Kevin. It would have been against the advice of a lot of his colleagues, but he made the decision, we respect that.”
But Dutton’s eagerness to throw fuel on the flames of Trump’s criticisms of Rudd shows just how long Trump’s shadow falls, providing licence for things that would previously have been unthinkable in our own politics.