Publication

This report examines the more notable meetings that occurred between Australian Prime Ministers and US Presidents from 1961 to 2008. The purpose of the review is to highlight the lessons the current Australian Prime Minister (PM), Malcolm Turnbull, might derive from the past and then apply to his relationship with US President Donald Trump. Among other conclusions, the text’s authors observe that 1) the bumpy start to Turnbull and Trump’s relationship is not unprecedented; 2) the inability of a PM to strike a strong personal relationship with a US president has never been fatal to the broader US-Australian relationship; and 3) there is nothing new in American and Australian leaders adopting opposing views about how to engage with Asia.