The Australian and UK Prime Ministers are now congratulating Donald Trump for being elected as the 47th President of the United States – but what have they said before the election?
Hear world leaders and celebrities react to Donald Trump’s re-election on this episode of The Briefing:
Australian PM Anthony Albanese
From ‘Scares the sh*t out of me’ to ‘Congratulations’
Albanese has sent his congratulations to the new president, tweeting: “Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his election victory. Australians and Americans are great friends and true allies.”
However, a video in 2017 shows Albanese making a bold admission about Trump the night before the US presidential election. He was speaking at a Q&A at Splendour in the Grass as Labor’s transport and infrastructure spokesperson.
“We have an alliance with the US, we got to deal with him but that doesn’t mean you’re uncritical about it. He scares the sh*t out of me. And I think it’s of some concern that the leader of the free world thinks that’s you can conduct politics through 140 characters on Twitter overnight.”
When asked if he would say that to Trump’s face, Albanese said he would “probably be more polite than that.”
UK PM Keir Starmer
From ‘Absolutely repugnant’ to ‘I look forward to working with you’
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated the president in the hours before his victory was officially announced.
“I look forward to working with you in the years ahead,” he tweeted.
However, Starmer said in 2016 that he would not want to have Trump ‘round for dinner’
When Starmer addressed the House less than a year before Mr Trump’s first presidential victory, saying: “We are united in condemning the comments of Donald Trump on issues such as Mexican immigrants, Muslims and women.”
He addressed comments made by Mr Trump that he said villainized certain communities as “absolutely repugnant”.
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