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Australia sidelined by the Middle East
18 June 2025
Australia has been invited to five of the past seven G7 meetings, but the planned sidelines meeting between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was the most highly anticipated part of the trip. However, as the United States announced they were sending aircraft carriers to the Middle East and told everyone in Tehran to evacuate, President Trump cut his time at the G7 short and immediately flew home.
Optics can play a role in leading presidents to cancel trips or meetings, like when President Biden cancelled his May 2023 trip to Australia for the Quad Summit to stay and focus on negotiations to avert a US Government shutdown. However, in this case, it seems to speak directly to the urgency and level of risk the escalating tensions in the Middle East pose.
President Trump convened a meeting in the Situation Room and has called for all people to leave Tehran. While it is unclear whether the United States will become directly involved in the fighting between Israel and Iran, it sounds like the administration is at least warming to the idea.
Potential US intervention has become a flashpoint within the MAGA movement, with Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene criticising President Trump’s push for involvement and Laura Loomer attacking them in turn. If Trump takes an interventionist approach in the Middle East and the MAGA followers end up supportive, it may bring greater alignment between the MAGA and neo-conservative wings of the Republican Party. This could, ultimately, strengthen the Republican majority in Congress as they negotiate legislation on foreign and domestic issues, which would have a far more lasting effect than executive orders. As USSC CEO Dr Michael Green recently noted, “Executive orders can be overturned in 20 minutes by the next president.”
Mari Koeck
Director, Engagement and Impact
Lead image: As the United States announced they were sending aircraft carriers to the Middle East and told everyone in Tehran to evacuate, President Trump cut his time at the G7 short.
(Photo by Matt Jelonek for Getty Images)
"AMERICA FIRST means many GREAT things, including the fact that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON."
President Donald Trump on Truth Social | 16 June 2025
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