Foreign Diplomacy and Ambassadors

Australia’s ambassador to the United States, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, will end his Washington posting at the end of March 2026, months after President Donald Trump publicly told him, “I don’t like you either, and I probably never will,” during an October Oval Office meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. In a joint statement, Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong praised Rudd’s three years in Washington and stressed he had delivered “concrete outcomes” for Australia under both Democratic and Republican administrations, a line that reads as a quiet rebuttal to Trump. Rudd, who had previously criticized Trump before becoming ambassador, will remain in the U.S. to return as president and CEO of the New York‑based Asia Society, focusing on U.S.–China relations through the group’s Center for China Analysis. The move removes a high‑profile, Trump‑skeptical figure from a key allied embassy just as Washington leans on Australia in AUKUS and broader Indo‑Pacific strategy, and it shifts Rudd’s influence from formal diplomacy into a well‑connected policy and think‑tank role in New York and Washington.