# Trump vows to take ‘hundreds of billions’ in tariffs as Australia’s hopes of getting exemption fades

Australia’s chances of escaping America’s global steel and aluminium tariffs appear all but extinguished, with the US president reconfirming his commitment to a comprehensive tariff regime he argues will be “the greatest thing we’ve ever done as a country”.

“We’re going to take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, and we’re going to become so rich, you’re not going to know where to spend all that money,”  on board Air Force One flying from Florida to Washington DC.

Australia has been lobbying intensely to be carved out of America’s global tariff regimes on imported steel and aluminium, arguing Australia is not only a US ally but one that runs a significant trade deficit with the US.

While Trump said he would give “great consideration” to exempting Australia after he and Albanese spoke by phone last month, the White House line has hardened since, and it appears unlikely there will be any reprieve for Australia from the tariff regime, as there was in Trump’s first term.

That exemption, in 2018, was won by then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose intervention this time around might have the opposite effect.

Trump on Monday condemned Turnbull as a “weak and ineffective leader” who did not understand the threat posed by  and who had been rejected by the Australian people, in a late-night post to social media platform Truth Social.

Trump’s invective came, apparently, in response to comments Turnbull made in an interview with Bloomberg that the US president’s chaos and capriciousness would benefit China and disadvantage the US.

“President Xi will aim to be the exact opposite of Trump: where Trump is chaotic, he will be consistent. Where Trump is rude and abusive, he’ll be respectful. Where Trump is erratic, he will be consistent.”

For countries considering a choice between “China on the one hand, and Trump on the other”, many would “find China a more attractive partner”.

Since Trump’s post, Turnbull has reiterated the comments in several interviews, arguing that a “conga line of sycophants creeping through the White House, paying homage” to Trump was ludicrous.

“The reality is, if you suck up to bullies, whether it is \ ... global affairs, or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”



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