CAMERON MILNER: Albanese in the hot seat with nowhere to hide from a Trump truth bomb

In a few hours, Australia’s weakest PM will meet the world’s strongest leader at the White House.

The commander in chief, Donald Trump, gets to spend valuable time with the procrastinator in chief, Anthony Albanese.

Trump the peacemaker, a crusader for Western values, a President who leaves nothing for interpretation.

Albanese the ditherer, the bloke who lost his Voice, too scared to be a Labor PM.

If only global politics was as easy as smiling for a selfie, Albo might actually cut it.

Returning on Air Force One from getting the Gaza ceasefire deal signed, Trump commented: “I don’t like the weak leaders, I like strong leaders, I get along with strong leaders”.

At least Albanese has been warned.

Let’s hope the week of hot stone massages amid the azure waters of Palau have the PM fully rested ahead of the meeting which promises to be be a doozy.

Albanese deserves the full Zelensky treatment from Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

He should be given a blunt assessment of just where we stand as a nation. As an ally begging for some Virginia class subs to be delivered years after Albo has retired to his Copacabana cliff top mansion because we’ve defunded Defence.

Australia under Albanese has never been further from the centre, never more vulnerable to threats abroad or at home from the vile hatred spreading across our streets.

Trump could start off with the red carpet treatment for the ISIS brides. The ones who tortured and terrorised Syrians we have already taken in as refugees. A deal personally cut by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke before the last election as he chased votes in Watson — definitely no conflict there.

A follow-up question could then be about the Gazans on tourist visas who receive concierge treatment from Burke at Sydney Airport. They’ll no doubt get citizenship in time to vote in Watson at the 2028 election. Australia is a global leader on taking Gazans even Egypt and Jordan refuse to accept.

The US could seek an update from Albo on his disastrous Pacific Islands tour and why China is turning the Pacific red under Penny Wong’s watch.

Perhaps a polite query on why we’ve just put a Beijing appeaser in charge of our five eyes intelligence desk.

The architect of “normalising” our relations with China, Wong has seen Chinese cops abusing human rights in the Solomon Islands, Chinese warships circumnavigating Australia, Chinese bribes handed out in the Pacific and not one but two Chinese spies in Canberra.

But hey, nothing to see, perfectly normal China relations apparently.

Trump could inquire why Albanese let the Israel attack dogs of Penny Wong and Tony Burke off the leash. Why anti-Semitism is a bushfire ripping through our body politic and self defence is only OK if you aren’t Israel.

Albanese could reflect on Trump’s speech to the UN in which he said countries including France and the UK are “going to hell” as a result of unchecked migration.

That speech was the same week Albanese nominated himself for the Marrickville Peace Prize by recognising Palestinian statehood with absolutely no plan to disarm Hamas.

If Trump does what he did to the South African or Canadian prime ministers, then it’s going to be worth staying up late. Time to get the popcorn and see the unscripted UFC cage fight that should ensue.

When Trump met South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, he confronted him over farmers having their property stolen at gun point by lawless mobs.

Of Trump’s meeting last week with Zelensky, it’s now being reported that not only did the President not offer Ukraine Tomahawk missiles, but he also told the Ukrainians to reach a peace settlement with Vladimir Putin which involved handing the Russians a large chunk of territory.

Albanese will be all smiles in the Oval office, but deep down he’ll be waiting for the backhander from a guy at the top of his game and for whom an Albanese meeting has been a low priority.

Maybe good grace, our shared values and the importance of the US-Australia alliance will see Trump overlook Albo’s many weaknesses. If so, it would show that even Albanese hasn’t been able to affect lasting damage on Australia’s most important strategic relationship.

But Trump’s got form on speaking the truth, rather than being just social.

For Trump, it’s more about getting a deal than the detail of deal itself. Therein lays the greatest risk for Albanese.

He is just a means to an end, a message stick for Trump to tell Australia and the world exactly what he and the US is expecting of us in such uncertain times.