White House chief of staff confirms Trump's desire to visit Australia

Washington: Donald Trump will make visiting Australia one of his top priorities if he wins re-election in November, according to one of the US President's most senior advisers.

In a rare interview with a foreign media outlet, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney also told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that the Trump administration wants to strike a final "phase two" trade deal with China this year.

Mulvaney, who has overseen White House operations for the past year, said that Trump and his wife Melania had been extremely keen to travel to Australia to attend the President's Cup golf tournament in Melbourne last year.

But the mid-December timing of the event clashed with the Christmas holiday season, which is packed with presidential events. It also coincided with the impeachment of Trump in the House of Representatives for his dealings with Ukraine.

"One of the highlights of 2019 for this presidency was the official visit and state dinner with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in September," Mulvaney said.

"The President still talks about it. The first lady still talks about it. The whole town still talks about it and what a positive experience it was.

"I know Australia is interested in reciprocating and that we're interested in getting there as soon as we possibly can."

It is highly unlikely the President would be able to travel to Australia this year given the presidential election in November.

Mulvaney said that Australia would be a big beneficiary of the "phase one" trade deal announced by the US and China this week.

"Any time that the two largest economies in the world are working together productively, the benefits of that rebound worldwide," he said.

That includes, "to countries like Australia that are so closely linked to the Chinese economy and provide raw materials to China."

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/white-house-chief-of-staff-confirms-trump-s-desire-to-visit-australia-20200117-p53sb3.html