A Staffer In Malcolm Turnbull’s Office Has Been Suspended Over An Anti-Trump Facebook Post
Delete your accounts, folks.
In a sign of how tense the relationship has become between Malcolm Turnbull Trumble and Donald Trump, the Prime Minister’s office has suspended a staffer who posted an “inappropriate” message about the US President on Facebook.
On 2GB radio this afternoon presenter Ben Fordham told listeners that he had alerted the Prime Minister’s office to a Facebook post made by an executive assistant in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Back on November 4, four days before Trump won the presidential election, she changed her cover photo to a picture of a shirt with the slogan “Tuck Frump”. Get it? You get it.
She also posted a link to tuckfrump.com — a site that features a video of a Donald Trump voodoo doll being stabbed, set on fire and torn to shreds.
According to Fordham, the image was the staffer’s cover photo until January this year. Somehow he caught wind of it, and contacted the Prime Minister’s office to alert them. The PM’s office then issued a statement saying she had been suspended and the matter would be investigated.
admin assistant suspended from PM's office for putting this on Facebook pic.twitter.com/NkEpGn8Nfa
— Phillip Coorey (@PhillipCoorey) February 3, 2017
Fordham told listeners that he didn’t want to report the story without giving the staffer the opportunity to be counselled. He also said he wasn’t expected her to be suspended. But regardless of his intent, his decision to notify the PM’s office is what led to her suspension.
The incident highlights how sensitive Malcolm Turnbull is to the perception he might be anti-Trump, following this week’s highly-publicised feud between the two politicians. Suspending a staff member for posting something negative about Donald Trump, before he was even elected, seems pretty over the top.
How dare that woman post a picture on her Facebook mocking a man who boasts about sexual assault what an outrage.
— Paris On Line (@DavidParis) February 3, 2017
McCarthysim in the social media age. A personal FB post outside office by an EA, not a political staffer or policy adviser. https://t.co/7xlIXsgq52
— David Crowe (@CroweDM) February 3, 2017
There are probably a lot of political staffers and public servants scrubbing their social media accounts right now.