An Australian politician has legally changed his name to Austin Trump in a move inspired by Donald Trump – in what he said was a protest against the country’s ruling centre-left Labor Party.
Ben Dawkins – who is an independent MP in Western Australia’s upper house of parliament where Labor holds a majority – is now listed as “Aussie Trump” on the WA parliamentary website.
He has also changed his username to “Hon. Aussie Trump MLC” on his X account.
“I’ve launched a political protest against the tyranny and systematic corruption of the Labor government in WA,” he wrote, in a post on the social media platform, signing off as “Aussie”.
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“Vote Labor Out! & Drill Baby Drill!,” he wrote in a second post, appearing to echo the US president’s plan to increase the extraction of oil and gas in the United States.
He also posted a photo showing legal confirmation of the name change from Western Australia’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
“I want to be like Trump in the sense of calling out woke leftist nonsense,” he told 9News.
“I would love you to reach out Donald, just ring the office here.”
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“This is simply attention-seeking stuff,” said Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook, the state’s Labor leader, at a news conference on Thursday.
“I’m not sure how much lower he can go.”
Western Australia state elections are due to take place in March, before the country goes to the polls in a nationwide vote that must be held before 17 May.
