Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, has downplayed his previous criticisms of Donald Trump, declaring that Australia will “work positively and constructively with whichever party is elected in November”.

Rudd, appearing alongside Joe Hockey at the Republican National Convention, said he has told European ambassadors that it is “really important to chill”.

“The really good thing about the United States is brand Australia is in good working order,“ Rudd said.

“We are in a good position to work with whichever party is elected.”

Rudd, in the years before becoming Australia’s ambassador to the US in 2023, was highly critical of Trump during his first term and labelled him “a traitor to the west”.

In a 2017 episode of ABC’s Q&A, he said “anyone concerned with a public policy process, domestic or international, thinks he’s nuts”,  and has repeatedly tweeted scathing criticism of the former president.

Trump, when asked in a UK-based interview at the behest of Sky News Australia in March, said he had heard that Rudd “was a little bit nasty”.

“I hear he’s not the brightest bulb,” Trump said.

“I don’t know much about him, but if he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

Turn of face

The former president of the United States has always been a polarising figure, with JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential pick, once labelling his now-boss as “noxious”, “reprehensible” and having the potential to be America’s Hitler.

Vance changed his opinion on Trump after receiving his endorsement in the Ohio senate race that he won and recently said “President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind”.

Vance, like Rudd, was once critical of Trump, but has been able to win over the former president. Photo: Getty

Rudd said, at a separate press conference earlier in the day, that he had developed a “texting relationship” with Vance and downplayed his previous criticism of the Republican candidate.

“A whole range of people had a range of interesting things to say about President Trump,” he said.

“There’s a wide fabric of relationships between myself as ambassador and a vast array of individuals who would be likely to form a nucleus of the incoming Trump administration.”

Frozen out?

David Smith, associate professor in American politics and foreign policy at the University of Sydney, previously told The New Daily that “the relationship between the ambassador and the president is only a very small part of Australia-US relations”.

“When Trump left office in the wake of January 6, 2021, a lot of people were saying things like that because Trump was blatantly violating democratic norms,” Smith said.

“A lot of those people will be in a position to deal with Trump, so the question is how many people can Trump possibly freeze out or hold a grudge against.”

Like Rudd, many foreign leaders and ambassadors who have criticised Trump, particularly after the January 6 insurrection, may soon be dealing with a second-term leader who has promised “retribution”.

Hockey, on the RNC floor, highlighted that Republicans had told him how hard Trump had been working to repair relationships.

“I know you’ve been working the Republicans really hard and well done on that,” he said.

“All of them come to me, Larry Kudlow, Robert O’Brien, (Mike) Pompeo, they said we’ve been with Kevin Rudd. They’re really interested in your observations around China.”

Rudd said that his first responsibility as ambassador is to “get to know who could be in next time around”.

“It’s a democracy, anything can happen here,” he said.

“If the American people vote for Donald Trump and for JD Vance, the Australian government, led by Anthony Albanese will be in there, working hard with incoming Republican administration from day one.”