Trump has “no idea” who Peter Dutton is

US President Donald Trump says that he was “very friendly” with the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was re-elected in a landslide victory at the weekend.

“We had a very good relationship,” Trump said on Sunday in the White House in the first comments on the Australian elections in the White House.

But the US President was less familiar with the other election candidate.

“I have no idea who the other person is presenting against him,” he said of the conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton, who considered many equivalent to Trump as Australia's equivalent.

In the run -up to the elections, Dutton and his liberal national coalition initially seemed to have an advantage over Albanese, which had to deal with the dissatisfaction with the public about dealing with government questions such as living space and healthcare.

But on Saturday Albanese opposed the so-called “Amt-Curse” and celebrated a surprising comeback to secure a comfortable majority for a second term.

The global uncertainty, which was created by Trump's comprehensive tariffs, was cited as a reason for a swing to the Albre-Link Labor Party of Albanese.

“Albanese, I'm very friendly,” said Trump on Sunday. “I don't know anything about the choice except … The man who won is very good. He is a friend of mine.”

When Trump was asked about Albane's earlier comments that Trump's tariffs in Australia were “not the act of a friend”, Trump replied: “Well, I can only say that he was very, very nice to me, very respectful towards me.”

According to the former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Dutton carried out a “very Trumpian campaign” that told BBC Newshour that the US President was “the mood music that had a great influence on how people have perceived the coalition”.

Dutton's mark of hard conservatism, his support for controversial immigration policy as to send asylum seekers to offshore at home and his violent criticism of China all led to comparisons with Trump.

And although it is a similarity that he rejected, the coalition pursued a policy under his leadership that seemed to have been borrowed from the Trump administration.

Dutton seemed to try to shake off these associations towards the end of his campaign and repeated the audience in the debate of the last leaders repeatedly that he did not know Trump before trying to answer questions about him.

He had also tried for a long time to convince the voters that he would best be the politician for dealing with Trump, and quoted his experience as a cabinet minister during the collective bargaining in Trump's first term.

The voters were not convinced.

Dutton's campaign ended with a defeat and Dutton lost its own place of 24 years in Dickson. He resigned hours after completing the surveys on Saturday when the election results pointed out a worker.