Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull earned laughs Tuesday when he impersonated Donald Trump and urged the country’s political leaders to hold a general election next month to “stand up” to the US president.
During a speech, Turnbull, who was Australian prime minister when Trump first took office in 2017, mimicked the US commander-in-chief with a nasal American accent.
Turnbull advised political candidates in Australia’s May 3 general election not to fear offending Trump.
“That’s the challenge for our leaders — they’ve got to be able to stand up,” he began.
“If that means they get a brickbat or a Truth Social post saying, ‘You’re weak and ineffectual. You don’t know anything about Chin’a,” Turnbull added, aping Trump’s characteristic cadence.
“If you’re spooked by that, you shouldn’t be in the job,” Turnbull finished while drawing laughs from the crowd.
The former conservative leader Turnbull took a swipe at Trump earlier this year, deriding his return to office as “chaotic” and “erratic”.
The US president returned to his Truth Social platform, dismissing Turnbull as “a weak and ineffective leader” who “never understood what was going on in China”.
The pair’s relationship appeared ill-fated from the beginning. Turnbull was among the many leaders who phoned the US president after his shock election victory in 2016.
The US president reportedly described the call as “the worst by far.”
