Federal Politics
  1. Home
  2. Politics
  3. News
Save
Print
License article

Donald Trump's made 'praiseworthy' moves as President, former PM John Howard says

James Robertson
76 reading now

Conservative hero and Australia's second longest-serving Prime Minister John Howard not only "trembled" at the thought of a Trump Administration but admitted he would have struggled to vote for one.

But in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday, Mr Howard presented a more sanguine view of Mr Trump in office, a man he said Australians could trust as an alliance partner, expected to last a full term and who was being condemned too hastily as a scandal involving Russian connections with his campaign ensnares family members.

Up Next

US banks lead Wall St higher

null
Video duration
01:39

More World News Videos

null
Video duration
01:05

Articles of impeachment introduced ...
null
Video duration
01:39

US banks lead Wall St higher
Monkey business over wildlife selfie (Video Thumbnail)
Video duration
00:46

Monkey business over wildlife selfie
null
Video duration
01:48

Charlie Gard's parents arrive at court
null
Video duration
01:27

Trump admires French first lady’s ‘good ...
null
Video duration
00:55

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo dies in ...
More videos

Articles of impeachment introduced against Trump

A Democratic lawmaker has introduced articles of impeachment against US President Donald Trump, but without the support of many colleagues in the House.

"People who are writing him off now are foolish – a lot of people doing that still can't accept that they lost [the election]," Mr Howard said. "You've got to look through the style. The things that disconcert people about him are more on the style side."

Speaking at the Museum of Contemporary of Art at an event by the United States Studies Centre at The University of Sydney, Mr Howard said it was too early to say if Mr Trump would be a success.

"There's a rush to judgment on this bloke which is understandable, but we've got to be careful of falling for [that] trap," he said. "Some of the things he has done on the international stage have been unsettling. But he's done a number of things as president that are very praiseworthy.

"He's there for four years."

Advertisement

Mr Howard defended the US President against recent criticisms, including widespread condemnation by international commentators for the United States' failure to achieve united international condemnation of North Korea at the weekend's meeting of the G20 nations.

"The G20 is overwhelmingly an economic gathering," he said.

And Mr Howard said Mr Trump had passed the strongest test of his mettle as president – military intervention in Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons.

He also played down "back channels" with Russia – the subject of an investigation into the President's office – as having existed for decades and averting the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

And Mr Howard, who famously refused to sign Australia up to the Kyoto Protocol, also defended Mr Trump for pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords.

"I have increasingly become more of a sceptic on climate change," Mr Howard said. "He did what he was always going to do."

But he was critical of Mr Trump pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and increasing economic nationalism – but a difference of view with America on free trade had dated back decades.

"Let's not have a nervous breakdown on that one issue, it's the broader relationship with China that matters more," he said. "How in the long run Trump handles that relationship … is very critical."

Mr Howard said the President's recent mention of Chinese trade sanctions was very concerning but he welcomed a dampening of rhetoric on the issue.

Mr Howard said expectations Chinese influence would upend the world order and Australian foreign policy were likely overstated.

"I am an anti-'having to choose' man," he said. "We will always be closer to the United States.

"But China has been extremely valuable to us economically. We should continue to build on that.

"I can think of people who were doing spectacularly well in their first seven and half months who ended up out on their ear in less than two and a half years," he said, in an apparent allusion to former prime minister Tony Abbott.

Mr Howard was firm friends with former US president George W Bush who famously dubbed him the "man of steel" and later awarded him America's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Mr Trump bested Mr Bush's brother, Jeb, in a bruising battle for the Republican nomination, soon after which Mr Howard said he "trembled" at the thought of Trump victory.

He said his success as president would be determined ultimately by the economic satisfaction of America's middle class after his first term.

"I think in the end he won because of hollowed out disillusionment among the American middle class," he said.

More Articles