Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has spent New Year’s Eve with US president-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Morrison posted a photo on X featuring himself and his wife, Jenny, alongside Trump and his wife, Melania, at the Palm Beach, Florida club.
“[Happy New Year] 2025 from Mar-a-Lago,” the post said.
The annual event at the resort was attended by vice president-elect JD Vance and his wife, Usha Chillukiri Vance, as well as Elon Musk, who arrived with his son on his shoulders.
Morrison has a history of friendly relations with Trump, saying in May that Trump had been subject to a “pile-on” in the media, referring to the many legal challenges Trump faced in the lead up to the US election.
Morrison had a meeting with Trump in May, where he said they discussed Aukus and Trump gave a “warm reception” to Morrison’s spruiking the deal.
Morrison met Trump at his home in New York City, and on social media posted a photo with Trump, grinning and flashing a thumbs-up, in front of the famous gilded elevator inside Trump Tower where high-profile figures including the UK’s Nigel Farage have posed before.
“Was pleased to meet with former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night at his private residence in NY. It was nice to catch up again, especially given the pile on he is currently dealing with in the US,” Morrison wrote on X at the time.
Morrison told a Sydney radio station at the time that he “got on well with Donald Trump” when both were in office. Trump was US president between 2016 and 2020, before losing to Joe Biden. Morrison was prime minister between 2019 and 2022.
Morrison attended a state dinner at the White House in 2019 and joined Trump at a campaign rally stop in Ohio on that visit. Trump at the time said Morrison supported “a lot of the same things” he did.
Australia’s current prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said he is “[looking] forward” to working with Trump, despite saying in 2017 that Trump “scares the shit out of me”.
Albanese has also backed Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, whose historical criticisms of Trump have caught the eye of some in the US president-elect’s inner circle – and prompted renewed debate about whether the incoming administration could seek retribution.
Albanese said Rudd had been doing “a terrific job as Australia’s ambassador to the [US] and it says a lot about how important we regard the relationship with the [US] that we appointed a former prime minister”.
