Major blow for Anthony Albanese as he fails to secure a meeting with Donald Trump

Anthony Albanese has failed to secure a meeting with Donald Trump during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt detailed Trump’s tightly packed 24-hour schedule in the city, which makes no mention of the Australian Prime Minister.

Instead, Trump will hold talks with the UN Secretary-General and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union, before joining a major multilateral session with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Türkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the UAE, and Jordan.

Albanese is now left hoping for at least a handshake with Trump at a reception for world leaders on Wednesday night, to be hosted by the president and First Lady Melania Trump.

‘I’ll be talking with him there,’ Albanese told Channel Seven this week.

The snub comes after Trump lashed out at Australia for voting to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN.

‘The President has been very clear: he disagrees with this decision,’ Leavitt said. 

‘He feels it does nothing to release the hostages, which is the primary goal right now in Gaza. 

Anthony Albanese has failed to secure a meeting with US President Donald Trump (pictured) during his visit to New York

‘Frankly, he believes it rewards Hamas. He sees these decisions as more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.’

The prime minister’s office is yet to respond, but cabinet minister Amanda Rishworth skirted the issue saying Australia has a ‘very close diplomatic relationship’ with the US. 

‘He’s had a number of phone calls with the president and … as he’s described them they’ve been warm, they’ve been good conversations,’ she told Nine. 

But Liberal senator Andrew Bragg was more direct, saying ‘Australia has been treated like a piece of dirt by this administration’ under Labor.

‘Perhaps sending (Kevin Rudd to the US as ambassador) was actually not in Australia’s interests, and also the way that Mr Albanese has conducted his diplomacy, he’s also been a disaster,’ he said.

‘We’re being punished, frankly, and it’s now very embarrassing.’

The snub comes after Trump lashed out at Anthony Albanese (pictured) for voting to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN

Rudd has a long history of outspoken criticism of Trump, and there are suggestions the President personally dislikes him. 

Rudd previously called Trump a ‘traitor to the West’, a ‘village idiot’ and described him as the ‘most destructive president in history’. 

In response, Trump said that Rudd was ‘nasty’ and that he would not last long in the role if he returned to the White House

Albanese and Trump were due to sit down on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June, before the President cut his trip short and flew back to Washington to manage the Middle East war.

Despite not meeting in person, the pair have had four phone calls since Trump was re-elected as President in January.

Early in September, Albanese described their latest call as ‘warm and constructive’.

Trump was also asked about the call and said of Albanese: ‘He’s a good man’. 

But last week, tensions flared when journalist John Lyons, from Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC, pressed Trump at a press conference about his business dealings while in office. 

Trump accused him of ‘harming Australia’ with the line of questioning. 

Trump addressed the reporter as ‘John’ before he answered: ‘Well, I’m really not, my kids are running the businesses’.

He then asked: ‘Where are you from?’

‘I’m from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with the Four Corners program,’ Lyons answered.

Trump’s demeanor appeared to shift: ‘In my opinion, you are hurting Australia very much right now and they want to get along with me.

‘You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you, you set a very bad tone.’

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Australia had a ‘long shopping list of issues’ that needed to be discussed with Mr Trump, including tariffs on Australian goods and the $368 billion nuclear-submarine deal under the three-nation AUKUS partnership.

‘We need the meeting,’ she told Nine’s Today program on Tuesday.

‘We need it to be calm, we need it to be considered, and we need our prime minister to be there, standing up for our national interest.’

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