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'Give him a go': Kevin Rudd's advice for Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull

Michael Koziol
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Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says Donald Trump should be given a chance to calm his temperament and "grow into the job" once he is officially inaugurated as US President on Saturday.

Urging the incoming leader to "calm down" his "dangerous" rhetoric on China and Taiwan, Mr Rudd said Australia should also work with Mr Trump to halt North Korea's nuclear advance and salvage parts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

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Advice for Donald Trump

Two former leaders have offered some advice to incoming US President Donald Trump and for Malcolm Turnbull in dealing with him. Courtesy Seven Network, ABC.

"The fair-minded thing to do is to give the guy a go. [Malcolm] Turnbull should try as hard as he can – and Julie Bishop – to work with him," Mr Rudd told the Seven Network's Sunrise program on Friday.

 "If it all turns bad, then we go to plan B. But I think we have to try and give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for the beginning." Mr Rudd did not elaborate on his conception of "plan B".

Mr Rudd, who lives in New York running the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Mr Trump had not expected to win the November election and that he now faced a "rapid learning curve" to transition from candidate and outsider to president and commander-in-chief.

"He did not expect to win this thing. Even those close to him in New York where he lives – I was walking past Trump Tower this morning – they all tell me that he did not expect to win," Mr Rudd said.

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"Will he get his temperament under control and become presidential? Let's give it a few weeks and see what happens. Hopefully he will grow into the job."

Mr Rudd said Australia's core national security challenge was North Korea's escalating nuclear program, which would require working with the Chinese to "try to get the North Koreans to see sense".

He said that if he were in Mr Turnbull's shoes, he would urge Mr Trump to "calm down activity" regarding Taiwan and the "One China" policy, by which Beijing requires other countries to recognise Taiwan as part of the state of China in order to maintain diplomatic relations.

The President-elect angered Beijing by accepting a congratulatory phone call from Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-we, and repeatedly refused to endorse the One China policy, declaring "everything is under negotiation" and continuing to label China a currency manipulator.

"That is dangerous," Mr Rudd told Sunrise. "This is a matter of core belief in the Chinese Communist Party."

Mr Rudd also said he would urge the incoming president to "rebrand" or "reconstitute" the TPP to maintain as much of the substance as possible, rather than scrapping it altogether. Mr Trump has described the free trade agreement as the "rape of our country" – and while Mr Turnbull has foreshadowed an attempt to ratify the TPP here in Australia, it is widely accepted the deal is dead.

Another former Labor leader Kim Beazley, who also served as ambassador to the US, joined Mr Rudd in defending the agreement and urging Mr Turnbull to persist.

"It's not a bad idea to keep the pressure up on the TPP," he told ABC radio. "It's a good agreement. And it is one that would be very helpful in directing trade in our region down helpful paths and good paths for Australia. So we need to persist with it."

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