Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had the crowd in stitches on Tuesday as he impersonated Donald Trump, encouraging the nation’s political leaders to stand up to the US president and contest the upcoming general election. Turnbull, who served as Australia’s prime minister when Trump first took office in 2017, briefly adopted a nasal American accent while mimicking the US leader during his speech.
Turnbull, speaking about Australia’s May 3 general election, told political candidates not to fear upsetting Trump. “That’s the challenge for our leaders — they’ve got to be able to stand up,” he said.
He continued, adopting Trump’s familiar cadence: “If that means they get a brickbat or a Truth Social post saying ‘You’re weak and ineffectual. You don’t know anything about China,’” he added, drawing laughs from the audience. “If you’re spooked by that, you shouldn’t be in the job.”
Earlier this year, Turnbull had criticized Trump’s potential return to office, calling it “chaotic” and “erratic.” In turn, Trump took to his Truth Social platform, calling Turnbull “a weak and ineffective leader” who “never understood what was going on in China.”
Their relationship had a rocky start, as Turnbull was one of the leaders who reached out to Trump after his surprise 2016 election win. However, Trump reportedly called that conversation “the worst by far.” Later, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, famously mispronounced Turnbull’s name twice during a press conference, referring to him as “Mr. Trumble.”