Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump have spoken in a phone call overnight

Published: 22:20, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 22:26, 13 August 2026 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump have spoken on the phone overnight. The conversation is understood to have taken place in the early hours of Friday morning. It marks the first call between the two leaders since March. While little detail has been provided, the call comes just weeks after Australia was hit with a new 12.5 per cent tariff as part of the US President's latest series of levies on trading partners. Trump imposed the blanket levies after the US Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs in a landmark ruling in February. The office of US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer published a statement alleging Australia had 'inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labour'.  At the time, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said the new levies 'make no sense', and that Australia had 'some of the strongest laws in the world' to combat the entry of goods made with forced labour.  Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump have spoken on the phone overnight