By Peter Brown
Pauline Hanson’s flirtation with Trump is not just tone-deaf – it’s likely to be politically fatal.
While the odds are already heavily stacked against Hanson ever becoming Australia’s prime minister – despite what her supporters might say – her very public alignment with Trump and the enthusiastic backing of Gina Rinehart, who has openly called for Australia to adopt Trump-style policies risks turning a difficult challenge into an outright impossibility.
Recent elections have made one thing crystal clear: in both Canada and Australia, association with Donald Trump has become electoral poison.
In the Canadian federal election, Trump’s aggressive rhetoric and actions dominated the campaign. The result? Mark Carney’s Liberals secured a clear victory, while Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives – perceived as closer to Trump’s worldview – were punished at the ballot box. Trump’s unpopularity north of the border reshaped the political landscape in real time.
We saw similar dynamics play out in Australia. Concerns about the so-called “Trump effect” dogged Peter Dutton’s campaign. His partnership with populist right-wing rhetoric and perceived alignment with Trump’s style contributed to a challenging environment, tainting the Coalition’s efforts in the eyes of many Australian voters.
Now Hanson is walking the same path – only more explicitly. Backed by Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person and a vocal advocate for importing Trump’s economic and political playbook, Hanson’s positioning leaves little room for ambiguity. Rinehart has made no secret of her admiration for Trump’s approach. Electing Hanson could effectively give Rinehart – with a touch of Trump – a direct line into the heart of national policy.
It’s not a straight line from Hanson to Trump, but with Rinehart acting as the glue, the connection carries real weight. For many Australian voters, that triangle is deeply unappealing.
Australians have consistently shown scepticism toward the chaotic, divisive brand of politics Trump represents. While Hanson’s base may cheer the association, the broader electorate – particularly in urban and suburban seats needed to form government – is likely to recoil. In a country that values stability, fairness, and a rules-based international order, Trump-style politics remains a liability, not an asset.
Hanson’s One Nation has long thrived on niche protest politics. But a credible tilt at being a heavyweight party requires far broader appeal. Doubling down on Trump at this moment risks cementing Hanson’s image as a fringe figure rather than a national leader.
The lesson from Canada and our own federal contest is straightforward: voters are watching. Aligning yourself with Donald Trump may fire up the base, but it alienates the millions of Australians who want nothing to do with that brand of politics.
For Hanson, the Trump embrace isn’t a bold strategic move – it’s a self-inflicted wound that could doom her ambitions before they even properly begin.
Also by Peter Brown
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Just let Pauline keep doing and saying what she wants, which is proving to be disastrous for her. I delight in watching Hanson, unchecked, dig her own graveand she cannot even see it, that is truly how ignorant as well as low IQ she is.
I am not surprised Trump super-fangirl Vagina Coalheart is pushing down the same catastrophic fail of a route she mapped out for Dutton’s campaign which drove its self straight off a cliff. The single-minded stupidity of these neo-lib far right fascists is a commonality, perfect example is Abbott now president of the Liberal Party saying they don’t need to change anything about how they’re doing it; altering tactic is a ‘bain fart’, his words – well as a leading expert in brain farts he would know. Installing him was the death knell to that party. Likewise Hanson can just talk her way into a sinkhole. You can’t make up how imbecilic and tunnel visioned they are.
This perceived tilt at power (really a misguided populist bubble already bursting) should be the end of her career. Something to look for ward to, after the next election she will no doubt retire, and good riddance to the orange dog.
“Pauline Hanson’s flirtation with Trump is not just tone-deaf – it’s likely to be politically fatal.”
Let’s hope so!
By the way, an excellent commentary – thanks.
The red-headed harpy’s visit to England and her subsequent dumping sh*t on the Bedfordshire city of Luton in an interview with Tommy Robinson is akin to inviting someone to your home and then having to endure their criticism of your furnishings, the colour schemes, the messiness of the kitchen, the pet’s hair on the carpet and so on.
She just can’t help herself in her constant displays of vulgarity, nastiness, pettiness, along with her sycophancy to the rich & nasty class. A horrible person, and a rancid tumour on the Australian political landscape.
Really, if you want to be an MP or Senator, and you put the beliefs you carry and many of your friends carry, ahead of the people you want to elect you because you are too ideologically blind to see, hear or think, you deserve everything you get!
Hanson was always going to captain her own Titanic and so was Trump. Hanson has listened to few people who turn up to her rallies. Not those who support her but those who actually go the full nine yards. Therefore making Hanson an expert because “people tell me…..” (#what l want to hear)
Gina could not give a 💩 about anyone other than Gina. I mean for god’s sakes she cheated her own children out of their inheritance.
Trump is a more sophisticated version of Poorline. He understands the money market and boy does he make use of that knowledge. And NOT to help working class Americans.
So yeah! some might say F.A.F.O. but l think the blindness runs deeper than that.
Also keep in mind that many offshore blame Newscorp’s proprietors for creating the Trump ‘Frankenstein’, and in 1980s NYC shared Trump’s fixer Roy Cohn who also worked for Italian mob, then Russia mafia/oligarchs, who still influence the US.
We were stupid enough to elect a miracle believing advertising agent hopefully now that the Murdoch era has passed we will make better choices.
Perhaps the best defence of Australian democracy is to have Pawlein on all the Australian political television programmes demanding that her polices of reducing worker entitlements and pay scales by 10%, evicting all Australian citizens who do not fit the White Australia criteria, and handing out dispensations to the billionaire’s club.
Most thick-headed Australian voters will soon ask, ”What about my share”, only to be told that Pawlein is the only beneficiary of good government decisions, certainly none of the PHONeys ”policies”.
Fun fact; according to recent Lowry polling, around 55% of respondents answered that current immigration levels were too high (around 29% were happy with current levels).
Probably solid pragmatic political practice to just dismiss over half of our fellow citizens as racist idiots, ay.
corvus:
I’d have started with a different question: How many immigrants are we accepting each year? Response to the “too high” question would be weighted by the accuracy of their answer to that one.
A lot of it is racist, simply because when those immigrants are from Africa, Middle East, Asia, Pacific Islands, they are more identifiable as “not us”, and it’s the visibly “not us” to which so many object.
There are genuine issues around sustainable population levels (particularly given increasing anthropogenic environmental damage), and infrastructure matching population growth, but the majority of the anti-immigrant move is not about those, it’s about changing demographics.
Pauline and Gina are enjoying a well deserved break in Sicily (possibly in Corleone) from where they will fly back to Oz on Gina’s executive jet, just like ordinary people do.
In the meantime Malcolm Roberts will be in charge of One Nation’s mail box – it is rumoured that Barnaby Joyce has asked the National Party to take him back.
Did you know that One Nation are seeking a slogan to carry them through to the next election when they expect to form a coalition with somebody [anybody]. A couple of early suggestions.
Ignorance ‘R’ Us or Stupidity Rools OK !
Leefe,
Immigration levels are obviously an issue of concern for a clear majority of the population, and likely for a variety & number of different reasons (including ‘demographic anxieties’).
In my case, it is the obvious environmental impact of doubling the Homo sapiens burden in less than half a century, then stacking on an extra million humans every 3-4 years.
There is no policy to decrease voluntary migration offered by any major party (greens included) which leaves a popular policy void exclusively filled by Hansons party.
I would never vote for her, nor anyone from her party, but can understand some of the reasons why disaffected people are looking to her brand of blame-based simplistic slogans for reactive responses, if not sensible solutions.
Either way, me sounding off about it on a fringe blogsite isn’t likely to shift any seismic needles, and the ever-increasing destabilisation of our global climate and undermining of biosystems will likely force these issues beyond any remediation through civil politics by this centuries end (can you hear those wardrums rumbling?).
Anyways, I’m off to join a friend for a paddle and stroll (might as well enjoy it before its gone).
Cheers for the response.
Terry Mills says:
17 July 2026 at 9:10 am
How does “Can We Fuck It Up? Yes We Can!” sound?
@ Terry Mills: An interesting observation for this New England voter, but my advice is that the fresh (lady) Chairperson of the NOtional$ re-election Committee has cancelled Beetrooter’s automatic pre-selection for the 2028 feral elections. Something about adultery, sexual harassment, philandering, misogyny, alcoholism and sleeping with Canberra planter boxes in public.
Other reported advice is that Bob Katter Snr MP wants the NOtional$ New England pre-selection to go to a family member to support his grandkids in the manner to which he believes they deserve. With about 50 years of favours owed, local commentators think that this is already a ”done deal”.
A slogan: ”We continue to line out pockets at taxpayer expense”, or,
”Why should we have policies when Australians want nothing”, or,
”Nothing done in 30 years why change??”
Today’s newlessness splurt from mediamaggotry has P Hanson sucking up (oh dear, no offence) to a warty misfit identikit pint and pie pommy whining proven criminal misfit typical chap in UK politics, named Robinson Tommy, a takerbludger, and thus a Joyce-ite colleague awaiting more for nothing. But, WHO really would vote for an empty whiner, granulebrained nonachiever, of no possible use in the realites of serving US, the citizens? She could not read a menu let alone legislation. Vomitous…Begone wenchstench, and, take reptile Roberts too. And, the Cocky is on track, for Earl Christmas Grafton Page formed the Country Party, to get MORE of bounties, tariffs, benefits, subsidies, cuts, reductions, schemes, inducements, writeoffs, writedowns. In return, we got prickly pear, rabbits, cane toads, weeds, erosion, silting and clearing. Bargain…