Furious Australians are reacting to Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on our aluminium and steel.
The US President considered making Australia exempt from the sweeping 25 per cent tariffs, which are due to take effect tomorrow, but decided against it.
“He considered it, and considered against it. There will be no exemptions,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement early this morning.
Ms Leavitt said the reason for the refusal to exempt Australia was “American-first steel”.
“And if they want to be exempted, they should consider moving steel manufacturing here,” she added.
In the wake of the news, there have been calls from everyday Australians across social media to cut ties with the US and abandon major partnerships like AUKUS and Pine Gap — a joint Australian-United States satellite communications and signals intelligence surveillance base near Alice Springs.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Mr Trump’s tariffs call as “unjustified” and an act of “self-harm”, but he revealed he would not engage in a game of tit-for-tat trade action.
That hasn’t stopped some Aussies calling for the country to boycott US products, given the tariffs contravene a 2005 free trade deal between Australia and the United States.
Comments like “with friends like this who needs enemies,” “time to change our trading partners,” and “Trump treats us as a trade enemy” are seen across news feeds.
“It’s now Australia’s turn to boycott everything American,” one wrote on Facebook.
Another added: “Need to put a tariff on all American cars coming into America.”
One even demanded a boycott on alcohol such as Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s.
“The blinded belief that we are a ‘close ally’ means absolutely nothing when it comes to this current regime,” one person wrote.
“And so it begins. History and honour mean nothing to this man. Stick his subs up his backside,” said another.
“Boycott of American imports starts now, yes?” asked a third, while someone else proposed “fine then, the rent on Pine Gap has risen to cover it”.
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Some are backing Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie’s idea for Australia to retaliate by closing Pine Gap.
“We’ve got this thing called Pine Gap,” she said.
“What I’d be doing is telling them we’ll close it down. That means their intelligence gathering for this end of the world — they won’t get anything.”
Established in the 1960s, Pine Gap is regarded as one of the world’s most valuable intelligence bases.
It continues to be operated by US intelligence officials, which Senator Lambie said offered the Albanese Government bargaining power.
“Pine Gap; they need it like no tomorrow. Just tell ‘em we’re going to switch it off in seven days. Give ‘em a real boot up their backsides,” she said.
“Tell ‘em you’ve got seven days to get your marines off our soil. Stop mucking around. Stop mucking around with ‘em.”
The idea has gained traction on social media, with many Aussies supporting it.
“1. Walk away from #AUKUS. 2. Shut down Pine Gap. 3. Kick the US Marines out of Darwin. The USA is no longer Australia’s ally. It should be treated as a malevolent foreign power,” wrote one person.
“Another example that shows how America doesn’t really care about us except what they can take and use from us. They treat us with utter contempt. @AlboMP [Anthony Albanese] Time to close Pine Gap and US bases in Australia and cancel all aspects of AUKUS,” penned someone else.
Among Pine Gap’s crucial functions is to act as an early warning system for missile launches by foreign adversaries, including nuclear strikes on America.
It also controls a network of surveillance satellites that keep a watchful eye on Russia, North Korea and China, among other volatile nations.
It is a crucial part of a missile defence system run by the US and Japan and plays an important role in electronic intelligence in military hotspots, like the Middle East.
And in the evolving space warfare space, Pine Gap would play a central role.
As for AUKUS, that is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK, and US agreed in 2021 that focuses on technology sharing in the Indo-Pacific region.
It has a nuclear submarine program and will provide Australia with a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.
During a joint appearance of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mr Trump in the Oval Office last month, a reporter asked Mr Trump about AUKUS and he appeared to have no idea what they were talking about.
“Will you be discussing AUKUS with the Prime Minister, sir?” a reporter asked Mr Trump.
“What does that mean?” he replied.
“AUKUS. The Australia-US defence alliance,” the reporter clarified.
“Yeah, we’ll be discussing that. We have (a) great relationship,” said Mr Trump.
On Wednesday, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the tariffs “don’t make any sense”
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“It’s an act of kind of economic self-harm,” Mr Marles said.
“We’ll be able to find other markets for our steel and our aluminium, and we have been diversified in those markets.
“But, you know, we’re obviously really disappointed with this.
