politics

An Australian journalist's rant about Donald Trump has gone viral worldwide.

In case you missed it, Donald Trump has, of course, caused quite a ruckus at the G20 Summit in Hamburg this week, most notably allowing his fashion-designing, socialite daughter to take his seat at the table when he popped out of the room for a quick minute.

But it’s not the actions of Trump that is today garnering the most attention, but an analysis of Trump’s actions by Australian ABC journalist Chris Uhlmann.

Delivering a scorching monologue on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning – where he attacked everything from Trump’s policies to his propensity to “bark out bile” – Uhlmann accidentally became the story while trying to tell the story.

In his analysis, Uhlmann said he believed Trump has “a particular, and limited, skill-set”, who left the US “isolated and friendless” after pulling out of the Paris Accord.

“He has correctly identified an illness at the heart of the Western democracy. But he has no cure for it and seems to just want to exploit it.

“He was an uneasy, lonely, awkward figure at this gathering and you got the strong sense some other leaders were trying to find the best way to work around him,” he said.

Uhlmann added he believes Trump is the kind who “craves power”  because “burnishes his celebrity”, and that we should always consider the scripted words of Trump are not Trump’s words at all.

In finishing the scathing account of Trump’s performance at G20, the veteran political journalist was clear in the power Trump holds, arguing he is “the biggest threat to the values of the West which he claims to hold so dear”.

As stressed about US politics as the rest of us? Amelia Lester and Mia Freedman debrief on their podcast, Tell Me It’s Going To Be OK.