Author(s): Joe Hockey

Politics

In September 2015 Joe Hockey's political career was brought to a dramatic end when Malcolm Turnbull successfully challenged Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the Liberal Leadership. Hockey was told by Turnbull he would no longer be Treasurer - a deal had been done with Scott Morrison. Hockey, who was at one point the preferred leader of the Liberal Party, had decided to leave behind his hopes of ever being Prime Minister. But days after felling the Abbott/Hockey Government, Turnbull offered the former Treasurer a new role: as Australia's Ambassador to the United States. Based in Washington DC, Hockey would immediately find himself in the middle of the historic 2016 Presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Despite strong objections from his own government, Hockey reached out to the Trump campaign. Betting on the electoral appeal of the brash anti-establishment candidate, Hockey was able to secure priceless early diplomatic contacts with the Trump campaign and what would become his administration. In these first hand accounts inside President Trump's chaotic White House, Diplomatic reveals for the first time the aftermath of the leaked phone call between the US President and Prime Minister Turnbull. Hockey recalls his personal dealings with Trump on the golf course and the cavalcade of characters who came in and out of Trump's Oval Office including; Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Mick Mulvaney.