Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese had an awkward air-kiss at the Labor campaign launch at the weekend. Peter Dutton dragged his 20-year-old son Harry to a media conference yesterday to explain how hard it is for young people to buy a house. The Australian turned the air-kiss into a story on Labor Party disunity. The Dutton episode was just plain risible given the Duttons’ status as property millionaires courtesy of family trust investments.
The campaign’s coverage has entered the specious stage, including heated debate over last-minute fixes for the housing crisis. Meanwhile, the disintegration of the United States proceeds apace. It’s the news that matters but continues to be ignored by both major parties and large chunks of the media. This is what happens when Labor and the Coalition take a mutually assured survival option that the US is a no-go area, even as Australia is swept up in Donald Trump’s tariff belligerence.
Display cabinet
So what have we missed? Amid the crashing of his tariff moves late last week, Trump invited the US media into a meeting of his cabinet for a live broadcast. He said it served transparency to bring the media into the “sacred” space. But what transpired was no lesson in civics. In the most profane way, Trump took a cornerstone of democracy and turned it into yet another platform for his aggrandisement — this time as the “Great Leader”, beloved of his team.
For the best part of an hour, the US president turned a cabinet meeting into an episode of The Apprentice. Occupying the power position at the middle of the table, he directed his cabinet secretaries to report on progress in their portfolios. It devolved into a festival of sycophancy. One by one they paid tribute to their leader and his extraordinary vision.
One big happy family
Agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins set the tone:
“First, I would say we [in the cabinet] have become more than friends. We are family. And I think that what you have assembled in your vision is a turning point, an inflection point in American history, and being part of that is the greatest honour, so thank you for that … The relationships here and the honour and respect we have for each other is a reflection of your leadership.”
Rollins came to the Trump cabinet having been co-founder of the America First Policy Institute, a not-for-profit think-tank established to promote Trump’s agenda after his first presidency.
Then came Attorney-General Pam Bondi:
“Mr President, you know you were overwhelmingly elected by the biggest majority. Americans want you to be president because of your agenda and the courts are ruling that you have the authority to determine how the money of this country will be spent. That’s what American citizens wanted and that’s what they’re getting.”
Bondi also ascended to the cabinet after working at the America First Policy institute. A former Florida attorney-general, she acted as a defence lawyer for Trump during his first impeachment trial.
Assault and flattery
Being sycophantic doesn’t stop at mere flattery. It also means finding favour through actions which might meet Trump’s approval. Bondi had taken the president’s cue and run hard: “Your directive to me was to keep America safe and that is what we are doing.”
Part of this was to crack down on dissenters who had targeted Elon Musk’s Tesla dealerships:
“You gave us a directive to prosecute the people who are going after Tesla to the fullest extent of the law. We’ve made four arrests. There will be no negotiation as per your directive. They’re all looking at 20 years in prison and within the next 24 hours you’re going to be seeing another HUGE arrest on a Tesla dealership with that person looking at 20 years in prison.”
Trump was indeed pleased: “That’s great, that’s great. That will stop it [any further protest actions] cold.”
There were more offerings. Defence secretary Pete Hesgeth reported that DEI was “99.9%” gone from his portfolio. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick reported that the US was “getting the respect we deserve now” because of Trump’s tariffs. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent drew approval when he underlined that Trump would be riding shotgun on any tariff deals. Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer reported on welfare fraud involving “almost 25,000 people who are apparently over 115 years old”, recycling a discredited finding from DOGE. No matter. It’s a line guaranteed to go down well with the president.
Health nut
For Health secretary Bobby Kennedy the live telecast cabinet meeting was a chance to ventilate his theories on increased rates of autism in the US. He told Trump that “at your direction” the government had launched a “massive” research program involving scientists around the world which would report by September, at which point “we will know” what has caused the autism epidemic.
“There’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” ventured Trump, adding the study might show “maybe it’s a shot” but that “something’s causing it”. It was the kind of medical guesswork Trump triumphed during COVID.
A president who trades in misinformation and conspiracy theories having a cabinet of sycophants means he can do anything he pleases. It’s an extraordinary insight into how an authoritarian state takes shape — and how extremists begin to populate the centre of government.
A sinking ship
Apart from the decay of its major ally, was there anything in it which might cause Australian ears to prick up? Well yes. National Security adviser Michael Waltz spoke of the poor state of shipbuilding in the country, adding cloyingly that “under your leadership” the US was going to “revitalise and make shipbuilding and maritime industries great again”. This is not the best of confessions for those hoping to see an AUKUS submarine any time soon. Nor was Trump’s rambling response:
“We essentially don’t build ships any more, which is ridiculous. It’s going to be a very big business for us in the not-too-distant future but in the meantime we have countries that do very well at building ships and we will be dealing with those countries and we may be ordering top of the line ships from those countries.”
Would you trust the word of a used submarine salesman like Trump? That’s the question Australian politicians should be grappling with.
The ship of fools, 2025 rendition. Plato, lucky fellow, predates both the invention of America and now its subjection when the term – and the allegory – appeared in Book VI of his work The Republic. It’s about a ship with a dysfunctional crew and the allegory is taken to represent how difficult (impossible) it is to provide good governance when the political system you use isn’t based on expert knowledge. It’s especially to the point with Trump II: it was working (though of course he, his court jesters, sycophants, and sundry other fools say it wasn’t) until he blew it up.
Let’s hope our next government gets Australia right out of AUKUS as fast as we can…..
A quick witted Journalist would have asked young Harry Dutton the battling apprentice chippy, if he had a financial interest in investment property.
A quick-witted journalist might also have asked Harry how he’s enjoying fee-free TAFE for his apprenticeship.
Particularly after that clip that is going around on social media, showing Senator Sarah Henderson saying that fee-free TAFE has cost $1.5 billion and will have to go because the country can’t afford it.
So much for addressing the housing crisis – make it more difficult to do an apprenticeship.
Not every American is vacuous and uncaring, I know of some who are quite upset at what’s occurring.
FCS…AUKUS must go…get some balls and unfortunately you must be reminded to use your head!!
Balls we already have too many of – we need some tough mufflers in there. Difficult to engage heads & (male) genitals simultaneously 🙁
Trump’s real target has been reached. A former reality TV personality and ongoing self-publicist has finally reached the top of the mountain – the apotheosis of his whole life, his dream come true.
In the Access Hollywood tape, he said “when you’re a star, you can do anything you like, grab women by the pu55y and so on”. Now that he’s President, he thinks “SCOTUS said now I’m President I can do anything I like”
The whole world is now looking at him, listening to him, and wondering what he will do next. He’s topped the global centre of attention ratings, he’s the most important person in the world.
That’s what matters most for him, nothing else comes near.
Which probably makes him the most important target in the world. One can only hope that the security detail that forgot the security details during the campaign has worked out how to keep a prize target out of the firing line.
I reckon he is confused about who is kissing his arse (ass)
Where’s Bill Shorten when you need him? He would have stuck his head up and had an opinion on this during an election campaign.
Oh, sorry. Australian politicians saw what happened to him. Losing the unloosable election because he had policies.
Now, we have a bunch of policy free politicians, who only know how to offer “bribes”.
🙌
So true Gavan.
Bill Shorten was a good thinker and planner with Principles of fairness and for all. His replacement is a Follower, not a Leader and relies on others to present ideas he can take time to think about and maybe follow. Shorten was right to attempt to scrap Negative Gearing after 2 homes and scrap Subsides to big Polluters. A better man also to deal with Trump and his mixed up ways. These things are missing in today’s Political leaders, and our Country’s secure progress. very unfortunate indeed.
The demented orange wanker has exceeded everyone’s expectations (nothing exceeds like excess).Puts one in mind of the Marx Brothers Movies,especially Duck Soup, which features the fictional country “Freedonia”.However , their movies look like documentaries compared to the grotesque farce currently destroying our”great friend”.
What a wonderful role model for half witted LNP politicians….eh, Boofhead.?
Perhaps the media circus at the cabinet meeting could be renamed ” Triumph of the Will”
Trump has faced bankruptcy 7 times between 1991 to 2009. All these are either hotels or casinos. As he’s treating the US economy like a casino, number 8 could be on the cards.
The frightening thing in the language used by his syncopats is the similarity to the boofhead in charge of North Korea!
This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
We must still have lots of contacts at all levels of the US. We should maintain these, exit any major obligations like AUKUS and wait. Trump was always known to be completely self interested, but now we see him as mad as well as bad – he has far exceeded our worst expectations. I cant imagine this ship of fools can stay afloat – something will happen for it to blow up. Congress and the Republicans still havent got over their partisan hatreds – they are standing by and watching as America burns. The Federal Court is confronting Trump – it remains to be seen whether they are capable of forcing any change. If not, Trump has broken one the fundamental Constitutional safeguards. Meanwhile the bad actors in the rest of the world are no doubt taking advantage of the situation…
Australia is a world leader in shipbuilding.
The largest solar powered ferry is currently awaiting sea trials in Tasmania.
Going to be a game changer.