(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump described former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as a “weak and ineffective leader” after Turnbull urged world leaders to not behave like a “conga line of sycophants” when dealing with the president.
Turnbull, who was Australia’s prime minister from 2015 to 2018, made the comments during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation shortly after Trump’s response.
The president’s attack on Turnbull came after Turnbull told Bloomberg that Trump’s style is an “advantage” to China.
“We cannot continue this bipartisan gaslighting that is going on at the moment where there are these massive changes in Washington affecting us and the whole world,” Turnbull told the ABC in response to Trump’s critique.
“Look at the extraordinary treatment of Canada, efforts to basically cripple Canada’s economy in order to bully them into becoming the 51st state.”
Turnbull, who negotiated an exemption from Trump’s tariffs on Australian steel and aluminum while in office — the only nation to do so — said Trump “wants people to suck up to him and to be sycophantic.”
“I do not believe you should give in to bullies,” Turnbull added. “And I have dealt with Trump in the past… I stood up to Trump and got him to do things he didn’t want to do because I wasn’t being bullied by him.
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“The reality is, if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s in global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
“We are now seeing somebody that is utterly unconstrained, and if the advice is to go and suck up to him, well, where does that get you? Are we just going to become… a conga line of sycophants creeping through the White House, paying homage to this guy and telling him he’s a genius? It’s ludicrous,” the former prime minister said.
Trump responded to Turnbull’s comments on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning, ridiculing Turnbull’s inability to retain power during 2018 when his party overthrew his leadership for future Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
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“Malcolm Turnbull, the former Prime Minister of Australia who was always leading that wonderful country from ‘behind,’ never understood what was going on in China, nor did he have the capacity to do so,” Trump wrote.
“I always thought he was a weak and ineffective leader and, obviously, Australian’s agreed with me!!!”
Turnbull’s comments come just days ahead of looming tariffs on Australian steel and aluminum from the Trump administration.
