Anthony Albanese, who this weekend became the first Australian prime minister to win reelection since 2004, never once mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump on the campaign trail. Nonetheless, the consensus is that Trump was all over this election—even Albanese’s victory address, albeit never by name.

In her introduction of the prime minister, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said “some might want to mimic the worst of other countries,” but that Albanese “always backs what’s best about our country.” The prime minister in turn emphasized that “today, the Australian people have voted for Australian values.”

Anthony Albanese, who this weekend became the first Australian prime minister to win reelection since 2004, never once mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump on the campaign trail. Nonetheless, the consensus is that Trump was all over this election—even Albanese’s victory address, albeit never by name.

In her introduction of the prime minister, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said “some might want to mimic the worst of other countries,” but that Albanese “always backs what’s best about our country.” The prime minister in turn emphasized that “today, the Australian people have voted for Australian values.”

These were rebukes to the opposition more than barbs aimed at Washington. The opposition Liberals—who are, despite the name, a conservative party, in a long-term coalition with the rurally focused National Party—had taken a different tack through the campaign. Prominent Sen. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had cheered “Make Australia Great Again” in April; Price’s coalition partner David Littleproud called this phrasing a “slip of the tongue,” but some of opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposed policies were straight from Trump’s playbook.

Before the campaign even started, Dutton named Price to a “government efficiency” role, promising to cut jobs in the education department and in government positions related to diversity and inclusion. Then, in the final weeks of the campaign, as polls suggested his imminent defeat, Dutton made a rightward lurch on culture war issues—by attacking some uses of land acknowledgments and suggesting politicians needed greater powers to deport criminals who were dual nationals.

By the end of 2024, a year of elections worldwide, two trends had coalesced into conventional wisdom. The first was that as developed countries underwent significant economic and social........

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