Trump-slide in Iowa
After Donald Trump's decisive victory in the Iowa Republican caucuses, the Australian government must start preparing for a possible return to the White House.
After secret recordings were last year published exposing Anthony Pratt’s private dealings with Donald Trump, much of the media attention was on the former president’s description of the packaging billionaire as “a red-haired weirdo from Australia”.
But another less discussed comment from Trump was much more important. “He’s a member of the most successful club in the country, Mar-a-Lago, and from a friendly country in Australia, one of our great allies,” Trump said of Pratt in a statement to the New York Times.
After Trump won the Iowa caucuses on Monday night (US time) in what was expected to be the largest margin in the history of the first step in the Republican nomination process, senior figures inside the Australian government will be hoping his sentiment towards Australia still holds.
Because, legal issues not withstanding, Trump will almost certainly be the Republican nominee for president in the election later this year, setting up a rematch with President Joe Biden that recent history suggests could be a toss up.
