WA election 2025: Upper House crossbench MP Ben Dawkins changes name to Austin Trump to mirror US President
An Upper House MP has legally changed his name to “Austin Trump” — in a protest against the “authoritarian” Labor Government.
Formerly known as Ben Dawkins, Mr Trump took to X to share an official notice of name change from Births, Deaths and Marriages ahead of next month’s State election.
His new name will now be Austin Letts Trump — a change already reflected on the Parliament’s website.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.As a result, the MP will appear on the Upper House ballot paper at the March 8 election as “Aussie Trump”, as part of his independent bid to be re-elected.
Mr Trump said he was a fan of the US President’s style.
“I admire the fact that he’s, in a very short period of time, unwound some of the absurd nonsense that the left has pushed through,” he said.
Mr Trump highlighted Labor’s amendments to gender laws, firearm reforms and electoral rules as a driving force behind his name change.
“I’m running as an independent in the upper house,” he said.
“I’ve chosen after two years of putting up with this, authoritarian Labor government, and the way that they push through that they’ve guillotine legislation many times without allowing the upper house. to properly scrutinize and debate
“It’s totally unacceptable that what they’ve done, and there needs to be a political process like this to draw people’s attention to it.”
A former Labor candidate at the 2021 State election, Mr Trump was expelled from the party over restraining order breaches after he replaced retiring MP Alannah MacTiernan.
Last year, Mr Trump joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in February, with the pair holding a press conference on the front steps of Parliament.
But the affiliation was short lived, with the party not preselecting Mr Trump on their Upper House ticket for the 2025 State Election.
“I’ll be the one responsible for who is on the ticket and who represents us in WA, I just don’t think he lived up to the professionalism of what I would expect,” State leader Rod Caddies said at the time.
“I’m the leader of the party, and, you know, I’m a very harsh judge, and I expect people to judge me in the same way.”
Since then, Mr Trump has sought to go on his own, leaving One Nation and starting his bid for an independent campaign.
