Hegseth’s undiplomatic treatment of Marles reveals a chaotic, ungenerous ally

Not even the most churlish critic could brand a trip to Washington, DC, in which you secure meetings with US President Donald Trump’s deputy, chief diplomat and top policy adviser a diplomatic failure.

Yet Defence Minister Richard Marles’ hurried visit to the US capital has turned into a messy, baffling and bizarre public relations snafu, fuelling existing concerns about the status of Australia’s relationship with its most important ally and security partner.

In a storyline reminiscent of Julia Louis Dreyfus’ Veep, coverage of the trip has been consumed by speculation about whether Marles would be able to secure a meeting with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, and parsing what exactly constitutes a meeting.

Marles’ office announced on Sunday afternoon that he was about to depart for a trip to Washington, saying he “will meet with Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, and other senior administration officials”.

The Marles-Hegseth meeting sounded locked in, but clearly had not been. Two days later, after Marles arrived in Washington, Australian officials were warning that Hegseth was facing scheduling issues and that a meeting might not take place.

In the end, the pair did meet, as a photo posted to Marles’ social media accounts made clear.

All’s well that ends well? Apparently not. A Marles press conference that had been planned for Wednesday morning before his return to Australia was scrapped because of time constraints, meaning he did not take any questions from reporters during the trip. This fed into the idea that the visit had not been a roaring success.

On Thursday, Hegseth’s office issued a statement saying that the pair had not had a meeting but a “happenstance encounter”.

The gratuitous, dismissive use of the word “happenstance” made it seem as if Hegseth were cutting Marles down to size, exposing his counterpart to ridicule back home. It’s an undiplomatic and ungenerous way to treat a supposed friend who had flown halfway across the world and is handing over billions of dollars, no strings attached, to prop up American submarine production lines.

A few hours later, the Pentagon backflipped, saying in a subsequent statement that Hegseth had been happy to host Marles. “Their meeting at the White House on Tuesday was co-ordinated in advance,” the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson said, heightening the confusion. How can a meeting be both happenstance and organised in advance?

Whatever you call it, sources familiar with the encounter say Marles and Hegseth spoke for about 10 minutes, clearly not enough time for deep discussions about the future of the AUKUS pact, security in the Indo-Pacific or Australian defence spending.

Marles’ office typically stands out for being professional and highly organised in its operational matters, raising the likelihood that the ramshackle Trump administration was responsible for the stuff-up.

During Marles’ trip, Hegseth was occupied by a highly unusual three-hour live-streamed cabinet meeting in which Trump’s department secretaries were expected to fawn over him and explain how they were enacting his agenda. It was a high-stakes spectacle. “If I thought one of them did badly, I would call that person out,” Trump said, treating the event like an episode of The Apprentice.

Marles’ meetings with US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and deputy White House chief-of-staff Stephen Miller were far longer and more substantial. Regardless of any particular outcomes, this type of relationship building is critical and not to be dismissed. Opposition frontbencher James Paterson – hardly one to give the government an easy ride – took the high road by saying Marles had received “very senior access” in Washington and that this is “the kind of relationship we aspire to have with the United States”.

Looming over Marles’ visit was the more significant question of whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will secure a meeting with Trump when he visits the US next month for the United Nations General Assembly. Indeed, the main point of Marles’ visit may not have been defence but to grease the wheels inside the Trump administration for a leaders’ meeting.

Forget any notion that Albanese would be happy to steer clear of Trump; he has made clear that he wants to meet and will do so at short notice. It is crucial at any time for an Australian prime minister to have a productive relationship with their US counterpart. That’s true more so now, given the Trump administration is reviewing the future of the AUKUS pact. Trump may not be the US president most Australians would choose, but it’s in our national interest for him to have a positive view of Australia, and of Albanese.

While nothing is guaranteed with the chaotic Trump administration, the Albanese government is quietly confident a meeting will take place next month – if not in New York or the White House, then in a trilateral encounter in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer following his US visit. If a meeting doesn’t take place, that will be a major snub rather than just a snafu. As for the flap over the Marles-Hegseth encounter, it is significant only because it symbolises a deeper truth: the US may be our ally, but it is an increasingly unreliable and capricious one.

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