Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been warned he risks 'significant political danger'
Wed 1 Oct 2025 09.00
Photo: AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been warned he risks “significant [political] danger” at his planned one-on-one meeting with US President Donald Trump later this month.
Speaking on the Australia Institute’s Follow the Money podcast, director of International & Security Affairs expert Dr Emma Shortis said the PM needs to be careful to not get sucked into any domestic US power plays while he’s in Washington DC.
“It seems to me there’s significant political risk there for the Prime Minister that isn’t offset by the potential gains of such a meeting.”
Dr Shortis cited past meetings with other allies in the White House.
“He’s gone on white supremacist tirades, for example, with the South African leader, even using a PowerPoint slide, or attempting to humiliate Volodymyr Zelensky with the help of JD Vance.
“That extreme version seems less likely, but it’s certainly not impossible. It depends on what kind of mood Trump is in.”
“He’s going to have to prepare for anything,” said the Australia Institute’s Senior Media Advisor, Glenn Connley, on the podcast.
Since Trump’s inauguration in January there have been four phone calls between him and the Australian leader.
They met in person in September at the President’s welcome reception for world leaders in New York.
“The risk of the Australian leader and by implication, Australia, being kind of forced into complicity with what Trump is doing there, I think is significant.
“He can change his mind half an hour after a meeting with somebody else.”
The Pentagon review of Australia’s AUKUS security pact with the US and the United Kingdom is expected to be finished before the two leaders meet.
“There’s a lot of talk about the AUKUS submarine deal and how this meeting might help to lock it down,” said Dr Shortis.
However, Dr Shortis said, there’s also the potential for the PM to be blindsided by sudden policy shifts.
“Trump may well say that it’s all fine and he promises the submarines but we know we can’t rely on that. So, the cost-benefit calculation [of the meeting] for me just doesn’t really stack up.”
Dr Shortis points to the recent mass gathering of military brass in Quantico, Virginia during which US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed “fat generals” and declared an end to “woke culture in the military”.
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“Why do you call back 800 leaders from across the world to give a TED talk? Why is that necessary?” asked Dr Shortis.
“While it’s early, it looks to me, potentially, as watershed moment for American democracy.”
President Trump also spoke at the event, warning the top military officials they could be headed to “war” with their own citizens.
“We should use some of the dangerous cities and training grounds,” he said.
“The ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places.
“And we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Dr Shortis said the move should raise alarm bells for US allies, such as Australia.
“What Trump and Hegseth were signalling is the total removal of all morality from American defence forces and the American military and simultaneously turning the military into an instrument of the Oval Office against the American people.
“Having the president be able to use the military as his own, at his own personal directive, this is for me, really quite frightening because it is normalising and legitimising that deep fascist tendency in American history that Trump has ridden to power.”
It’s why, she said, Prime Minister Albanese’s meeting with Trump later this month is much more than just an opportunity for a headline and photo.
“Seeing all those things in context as part of a carefully thought through plan really to dismantle American democracy; to dismantle constitutional protections … this has flow-on effects for the rest of the world.
“It really is a grim picture.”
The Australia Institute’s Glenn Connley said PM Albanese will need debate-style preparation and strategies to defuse flashpoints.
“I had never thought about that angle of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese looking complicit in some way with whatever Trump is doing at the time. I’d sort of always imagined it could blow up over the PBS or AUKUS or Australia’s position on Palestine.
“If he walks into a room and there’s something set up behind a curtain, it’s like, ‘hey Tony, I just want to show you something’. My God, he’s going to have to prepare for anything.”
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