Prime Minister Scott Morrison was very chummy with former US President Donald Trump. Photo: AP.

For reasons best known to him, Prime Minister Scott Morrison went out of his way to cultivate an astonishingly intimate friendship with former US President Donald Trump. Australia and America have been as thick as thieves for almost a century, but Morrison took it several steps further by placing himself, dangerously, on Trump’s side against both China and opposition Democrats during the US election year of 2020.

Clearly the PM ignored the bookies and backed the wrong, heavily-tarnished horse; with Trump now gone and those aforementioned Democrats in charge, we’re paying the price in trade, goodwill and diplomatic isolation with the US, China and other countries. In a surprise twist, this threatens to further hinder our already-botched COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Australia continues to lag well behind other nations on vaccine distribution. We have limited supplies of the Pfizer vaccine compared to other countries and – according to timelines distributed in June – doses of the recently-approved Moderna vaccine won’t even arrive until September.

Ironically, the one vaccine we have a fair supply of is the one some Australians are afraid of: AstraZeneca, which carries a small risk of thrombosis clotting.

So dire is our self-inflicted plight on vaccine that, according to a report this week in The Australian, Canberra has, since July, been imploring the new Biden administration for access to some of the 26 million Pfizer and Moderna vaccine earmarked for third-world countries struggling with COVID-19. That’s right, Australia – recently ranked 93rd in the world on vaccine rollout – has joined such COVID-19 basket cases as Haiti, Kosovo, Ukraine, Egypt, Georgia, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen and the wretched Gaza strip, many of whom are begging Washington for vaccine help.

If you’re appalled by our loss of status in the world, you’ll be aghast at the kicker in Sharri Markson’s report: “All of Australia’s requests have so far been unsuccessful.”

Lacking much in the way of support on the Democratic side of the aisle following Morrison’s Trump man crush, the Morrison Government has prevailed on leading members of ‘The Donald’s’ Republican Party to lobby President Joe Biden on providing Australia the excess doses of vaccine.

Michael McCaul, ranking Republican on the House foreign affairs committee, said Australia should be prioritised for the doses because China had taken the lead with third-world nations through its use of ‘vaccine diplomacy’.

“Australia is not only an ally but a Five Eyes ally,” McCaul told The Australian. “I’ve been pressuring this administration through the Covax program to give more of these vaccines (which) will expire if we don’t get them out the door.

“Get the vaccines to our allies, get the vaccines to nations where the Chinese are coming in with their vaccine and they want access to the ports, military bases … I believe we’re losing in that diplomacy game right now.”

There’s one major problem with relying on Republicans in Washington for vaccine support: they’re in opposition. Most Republicans (McCaul was an honourable exception) voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 election win on January 6, and some even wound up Trump supporters to “fight like Hell” before the latter rioted at the US Capitol that day to try and delay or overturn the result.


Morrison’s staunch support of the now-departed Trump has cost him friends in the US, China and other members of the G7 (right). Photos: AP, Daily Mail.

However amnesic “Sleepy Joe Biden” might be at age 78, he hasn’t forgotten the events of that day. Divisions continue to fester in Washington following January 6, with both sides rarely listening to each other and Morrison’s Republican friends out of government and lacking political power.

It’s no surprise, then, that sources close to the negotiations told The Australian they were not hopeful of success. Aside from America’s partisan divisions, the Biden administration has a commitment to deliver 500 million doses to developing nations, under a $4.7 billion deal with Pfizer, by the end of next year.

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Besides, you could hardly blame Biden if he’s more sympathetic to the plight of third-world battlers struggling to contain COVID-19, or if he wishes to compete with China in the field of ‘vaccine diplomacy’ by sending his stockpiles to, say, Yemen or Haiti. To Biden, this might be a more compelling case than that of Australia, a developed nation which squandered the resources and goodwill at its disposal by (i) adopting a slow-motion, “she’ll be right” approach to vaccine rollout and (ii) backing Biden’s twice-impeached, legally-imperilled and horribly unpopular opponent last year.

Morrison placed a massive wager on Trump, who Blind Freddy knew was doomed to defeat, and now he’s wearing the proverbial bankruptcy barrel (below). Remind me not to wager on his beloved Cronulla Sharks at PalmerBet; rumour has it the PM remains confident they could go all the way from 10th place with four rounds to go:


Scott Morrison sticks with Cronulla during a heavy defeat (left) but, at 151.00, punters would be well advised to ‘prefer others’ (centre, right). Images: Phil Hillyard, The Australian; PalmerBet, NRL, The Chiseler.

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson knows a thing or two about right-wing politics in the US. So concerned was he at the path his party was taking under its latest president that he penned a book in 2018, the title of which says it all: Everything Trump Touches Dies.

Long story short, Wilson was in large part referring to the Trump’s charismatic ability to rope people in, give them a fleeting taste of the power he wields and the riches they bring and set them to work tirelessly, fanatically and without qualms about the morality or legitimacy of whatever sketchiness he wants done. Typically, once their usefulness is at an end, Trump cuts his stooges loose, often unpaid or otherwise uncompensated, to deal with the financial, legal or diplomatic consequences of their actions, while ‘The Donald’ himself basks in the warmth of plausible deniability.


Trump touches Morrison (right) at a Pratt paper recycling plant in Wapakoneta, Ohio, last year. IMAGES: Simon and Schuster, AAP.

Some of Trump’s marks were gullible fools; others, like Scott Morrison, should have damn well known better. Among other obsequious acts, our PM parroted Trump on the “China Virus” (as the latter called COVID-19), questioned its true origins to Beijing’s ire, refused to condemn the then-President for encouraging the January 6 rioters, echoed the American’s rhetoric on climate change, ignored protocol and further angered Democrats by attending a campaign-style rally with Trump in Ohio, and attended the G7 as his guest and proxy, an act which saw him marked as a “Trump stooge” by other nations in attendance.

In return, Morrison received some lavish gifts, courtesy of the US taxpayer, and for some strange reason an armed services award from Trump, The Legion of Merit, elevating him to an odd assemblage of military despots that includes Haile Selassie and Chiang Kai-shek. On the flip side, he also reaped the whirlwind of China, our principal consumer, threatening to eviscerate us on trade and looking for alternate iron ore suppliers, together with apparent snubs from members of the G7 at two separate summits and, perhaps, from Biden on the critical issue of vaccines.

Not a bad haul for three years’ work, wouldn’t you say? I mean, who needs good health or a robust economy when you have a medal from Donald Trump?

You could say that Morrison “ïs dead to” China and – perhaps – Biden and other members of the G7. Score one for Rick Wilson and his thesis that Everything Trump Touches Dies, except that it’s unvaccinated Australians, not Morrison, who might literally perish.