24/02/2025
The Trump presidency has a message for Australia about the changing democracy in the US.
Analysis by Alan Kohler Finance Journalist ABC
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, and US President Donald Trump are dismantling or seizing control of the institutions and apparatus of the US state. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
America can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.
- Winston Churchill
The first half of that Churchillism can't be relied upon anymore, which means Australia is going to have to rethink its foreign policy and defence strategy.
The Australian task is not as urgent or wrenching as the one facing Europe now that the transatlantic alliance seems to be dead, but the government will have to decide whether to sign up to America's alignment with Russia and, more broadly, with Donald Trump's distinctive version of democracy.
It's impossible to know for sure now whether America will come to the defence of Europe, if attacked by Russia, or Australia, if attacked by China.
Europe should be OK: its economy is 10-times the size of Russia's, and it has nuclear weapons, or at least France does (albeit only 290 warheads versus Russia's 1,700, ready to go).
But Australia would have no hope against China, as Beijing reminded us last week with live warship drills off the NSW coast.
