| Good morning Tylko, Welcome to our federal election newsletter.
Anthony Albanese’s
tough talk hitting back against Donald Trump on trade tariffs is all about the election and hopes Labor can channel the nationalistic fervour that has boosted the standings of other foreign leaders. After the US President rejected steel and aluminium tariff exemptions, Albanese said the action was “concerning, entirely unjustified, disappointing and against the spirit of our two nations’ enduring friendship”.
When Chinese warships provocatively circumnavigated Australia and conducted live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea, the PM said the People’s Liberation Army Navy task group was “complying with international law” and repeated his line that “we will cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must and we’ll engage in our economic interest”.
While the federal election will be fought over economic issues dominated by cost-of-living and housing pressures, the spectre of Trump and Xi Jinping injecting themselves into the election campaign looms large.
With 12 days to go until the March 25 budget, Peter Dutton is under pressure from colleagues
to start rolling out more substantive policy and ramp up the contest of ideas with Labor. Amid confusion in Coalition ranks over whether a Dutton government would or wouldn’t break up insurance companies, there are fears not enough is being done to
stoke the conservative base weeks out from the election. Quizzed about internal rumblings on Thursday, Dutton said “there’s always free advice, plenty of it going around and most of it contradictory”.
“There’s a lot of policy we’ve been working on that we’ll announce between now and the election,” the Opposition Leader said.
Back on Trump, Albanese’s misstep was making a show of his February 11 phone call in which “the US President agreed that an exemption was under consideration in the interests of both of our countries”. The chance of winning an exemption was close to zero given how hardline the second Trump administration is. The Albanese government is now
seriously concerned about US tariffs hitting other products much more valuable to the economy.
Trump’s evisceration of Malcolm Turnbull this week was a timely reminder that it doesn’t take much to draw the ire of the most powerful office on the planet. | 
