Like him or hate him, Donald Trump is both an electrifying, galvanizing and rallying figure. An eloquent validation of this is the insipid, uncharismatic, dull ‘grey suit’ Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. (All this is not to imply Albanese is a non-starter; he is a master of performative politics).

While the campaign charter or promises of Albanese’s Labor correspond to issues that are important for his people, climate change, the housing crisis and so on- it is actually because of Donald Trump that Albanese has won. The Australian PM has obscured the nature of the mandate he has received by spinning it around prosaic and pedestrian voter concerns. But pare down the election pattern, it all comes down to Trump. It appears – like the mainstream media in the US- that Donald Trump has been painted in Australia as a polarizing, unpredictable politician who is only good at sowing chaos. Inflating this broad-brush negative portrait of Trump may have created fear in the minds of Australians who saw Conservative’s Sutton as the surrogate of Trump.

That Trump’s portrayal is essentially in the nature of a caricature would – given Australian’s overall insularity and a cocoonish ‘island mentality’ would be academic to the people of the country. This assertion may sound paradoxical but it is what it is despite........

© Kashmir Observer