AARON PATRICK: Joe Hockey says Donald Trump will be most influential American political leader in 100 years
Former treasurer and ambassador to the US Joe Hockey is likely to be among a dozen Australians close to Donald Trump. Mr Hockey struck up a professional friendship with the President when he served Australia in Washington from 2016 to 2020, a relationship that persists today.
As an Australian circulating in the Trumpland orbit, his views on the unpredictable president are worth considering. While many in people in Western democracies regard the President as a kind of crazy would-be dictator, Mr Hockey sees a phenomenon of his era — a leader whose unpredictable style reflects a world where the regular conventions are being abandoned.
“I think Trump is going to be the most powerful and influential figure in American politics at least since Teddy Roosevelt,” Mr Hockey said on Tuesday at a resources conference in Perth, referring to the US president from 1901 to 1909.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“Every part of our life has been disrupted, from our shopping to our markets, to the way we live, the way we interact with others.
“Why wouldn’t you expect a disruptor in politics?”
No long after Mr Trump was almost assassinated last July, he spoke to Mr Hockey, who owns a lobbying firm that relies in part on his access to the US government. Instead of a self-praising egotist many people see on their televisions, Mr Hockey listened to a man more affected by the near-death experience that many realise. “He’s not a religious person,” Mr Hockey said but “it had a big impact”.
“He really believes he’s got a job to do.”
As the president pursues his semi-messianic ambition to return, as he sees it, the US to a leading position in the world, the conventional rules of government, diplomacy and politics have been cast aside.
“He doesn’t care about process and we all see that with his rhetoric and his tweets and the way he talks about people, which I think is unfortunate,” Mr Hockey told the Resources Industry Showcase at the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre.
“But he is very focused on outcomes and is very determined to change America.”
The former ambassador’s prediction that history will judge Mr Trump a more important president than Franklin Roosevelt, who took American into World War II, or George H W Bush, who ended the Cold War, seems overly generous.
But his observations may help Australians reconsider their views of a leader whose style is so alien to the Westminster parliamentary style of government that it has fuelled doubts among many Australians about the US alliance, which has been the foundation of Australian security since 1941, when the Japanese not only bombed Pearl Harbour but fought Australians in Malaya.
