Article by Ben Doherty, courtesy of The Guardian.
Two of Australia’s richest people, Gina Rinehart and Anthony Pratt, have taken out newspaper ads in the US declaring their unswerving affection for the president-elect, Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday.
Pratt’s advertisement in Sunday’s New York Times featured a map of the US (sans Hawaii and Alaska) and asserted Trump would revitalise manufacturing in the country.
“Congratulations President Trump,” it said. “I’m honored to support your call to Make America Great Again by bringing manufacturing jobs back home.”
It’s a significant rapprochement from just two years ago, when Trump described Pratt as a “red-haired weirdo from Australia”, after Trump was accused of leaking sensitive nuclear submarine information to Pratt.
Rinehart took out near-identical ads in the tabloid New York Post and the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, addressing her Post missive “To the Outstanding Leader”.
“Who understands that high government tape, regulation and taxes do nothing to encourage investment,” it said. “Investment being essential to raise living standards of a nation’s people.
“We well know you love your country and are exceptionally dedicated to its people.”
Antipodean billionaires appear to have enviable access to the president-elect. Trump dined recently with James Packer, alongside Elon Musk, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to pictures of the meal uploaded to Instagram.
But the guest list for Trump’s inauguration is being hurriedly recast after the event was moved inside because of an “arctic blast” – in the words of the president-elect – sweeping Washington.
