As it is now clear that our real US ambassador is Greg Norman; let's say bye-bye to Joe Hockey and hello to Ambassador Shark (Letters, November 21). In these difficult times a reshuffle is needed to remove the middleman and save on the ballooning accommodation and entertainment costs.

Ian McKee Lilyfield

Was one of the conditions of Malcolm Turnbull getting Greg Norman to endorse him with Donald Trump, the requirement to call Norman a great Australian?

Mary Grocott Orange

If, as David Greatorex suggests (Letters, November 21) Donald Trump only takes calls in alphabetical order, wasn't Malcolm Turnbull fortunate he is not the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Anyway, Trump probably thought he was on the phone to Austria.

readmore:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/exorbitant-tolls-gouging-sydne...

When the going gets tough in the US capital, Donald Trump gets going to the greens of one of his private golf clubs — and, it turns out, phones an Australian friend to help keep spirits up.

Joe Hockey may well have become the envy of Washington DC's diplomatic corps, getting a call-up to join the US President in a select foursome for much-needed fairway therapy at the end of another testing week in the White House.

Last weekend had been an especially trying one for Mr Trump. He had commanded more than 100 missiles rain down on Syria, unleashed a Twitter fusillade against the sacked FBI director James Comey and fretted over the seizure of his confidential legal dealings by federal investigators — all while his alleged one-time porn-star lover continued endless rounds of media interviews.

What better than to slip across the Potomac River in a low-key Secret Service motorcade for a nine-hole round at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia?

The President was not going it alone.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-18/hockey-putts-for-power-goes-nine-h...

Hockey's hook shots are world famous... Read from top.

At 9:04am he arrived at one of his favourite weekend escapes, the Trump International Golf Club in Florida, which is just a short drive from his Mar-a-Lago resort — the so-called winter White House. 

The media outlets that follow the President around the nation were not able to track Mr Trump's movements from their vantage point at a nearby library.

The President's partners for his usual Saturday round also weren't announced to the press.

But Australian ambassador Joe Hockey, apparently an enthusiastic but unaccomplished golfer, was there with his clubs and had a hit, missing Easter with his family as a result.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-25/donald-trump-and-joe-hockey-play-...

Joe Hockey took us for mugs but hopefully his days in the USA are numbered... He smiles as if he had placed a bent sausage in his trap. Over the years he worked the rules: entitlements for him, bugger all for you.