Anthony Albanese had held a “warm and positive” conversation with US President Donald Trump in the wake of Labor’s crushing federal election win that has left the Coalition picking up the pieces.
Details of the phone chat were shared by Albanese as he revealed a number of world leaders had reached out to him following his crushing victory on Saturday.
“I had a very warm and positive conversation with President Trump just a short while ago when I was at the Lodge and I thank him for his very warm message of congratulations,” Albanese told reporters.
Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today
Albanese said the trilateral security partnership AUKUS and tariffs were discussed, and they “will engage with each other on a face-to-face basis at some time in the future”.
“But it was very warm and I thank him for reaching out in such a positive way as well,” Albanese said.
When asked if the president had made any promises during the conversation, Albanese said it was a “warm discussion about the friendship between our two nations”.
“I’ve had three conversations with the president. I won’t go into all of the personal comments that he made but (Trump) was very generous in his personal warmth and praise towards myself,” Albanese said.
“He was fully aware of the outcome and he expressed the desire to continue to work with me in the future.”
Anthony Albanese says he has held ‘warm and positive’ talks with US President Donald Trump. Credit: 7NEWS The prime minister said leaders including James Marape (Papua New Guinea), Prabowo Subianto (Indonesia), Volodymyr Zelensky (Ukraine), Keir Starmer (UK) and Mark Carney (Canada) — “who invited me to attend the G7” in June — had reached out to congratulate him on the back-to-back election win.
The phone chat came after Trump had praised Albanese during comments outside the White House.
“Albanese, I’m very friendly with. I don’t know anything about the election other than the man that won, he’s very good,” the president said.
Albanese had previously criticised Trump’s decision on wide-ranging tariffs — with Australian exports to the US slugged with a 10 per cent tax — saying “this is not the act of a friend”.
When asked about the comments on Monday, Trump said: “I can only say that (Albanese has) been very, very nice to me, very respectful to me.”
“I have no idea who the other person is that ran against him, and you know (Albanese and I) have had a very good relationship.”
During the election campaign, both Albanese and Peter Dutton had positioned themselves as best placed to deal with the Trump-led administration.
Labor had described the opposition as “full of these kind of DOGE-y sycophants who have hitched their wagon to American-style slogans and policies”, off the back of the Coalition’s announcement of a US-inspired shadow minister for government efficiency and plans to cut thousands of public servant roles.