As an American down under, I thought I’d escaped Trump. Now there are mini Trumps here too

November 1, 2026 — 2:00am

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I’m 21, voting in my first US midterms, and doing it from nearly 16,000 kilometres away.

Since August, thanks to a 10-week journalism internship with this masthead, I’ve been settled into a different version of the shining city on a hill I’m used to: a high-rise in Melbourne’s CBD. Instead of lining up outside my local church or city hall in Michigan, I’m fulfilling my civic duty through an online ballot.

It was surprisingly simple to receive my ballot by email, and it was ready to fill out less than 10 minutes after I applied. Democracy has never been more accessible, yet Americans aren’t voting. Compulsory voting is something I’d love to stuff in my suitcase and bring home.

Before I came to Australia, I never predicted how many people would ask me about politics the moment they heard my accent, or how embarrassed I’d feel about my country being represented by such a joke. I don’t think many Americans know the extent that other countries see and hear about the US. I expected Australians would........

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