How Trump went from Anthony Pratt being a ‘great gentleman’ to ‘red-haired weirdo’

Packaging billionaire Anthony Pratt burst back into the news a fortnight ago when it was revealed he would be a witness in former US president Donald Trump’s trial for the alleged mishandling of classified documents after Trump had talked submarines with him.

Pratt hadn’t exactly been discreet — he allegedly went on to tell a number of people the high-level gossip. But this week the story kicked up a notch with Nine newspapers’ series on secret recordings of the loose-lipped Pratt, which resulted in a Trumpian response for the ages…

How did it all come about? 

America’s ABC first reported that Trump had allegedly discussed operating details of US nuclear submarines with Pratt, who is a member of Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida at a cost of $200,000 a year. 

Sources told ABC that Pratt had allegedly told Trump during a conversation in April 2021 that Australia should be buying its submarines from the US. This was four months before the AUKUS agreement that would see Australia receive assistance in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. 

An excited Trump reportedly then told Pratt the number of nuclear warheads American submarines could carry, as well as how close they could get to Russian submarines without detection. ABC reported that Pratt then proceeded to relay what Trump had told him to almost 50 people, including six journalists, 10 Australian officials and three former Australian prime ministers. 

This week’s Nine newspapers’ investigation showed Pratt has made explosive further claims that Trump gave details of private calls with the president of Iraq, as well as of US military actions in the region. 

Meanwhile, who’s on Pratt’s payroll? 

The investigation also revealed that Pratt, a packaging baron with a reported family value of $24.3 billion, keeps former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Paul Keating on retainer, and made regular payments to then-Prince Charles. 

According to documents leaked to Nine, Pratt hired Abbott only weeks after Abbott had lost his Sydney seat of Warringah to independent Zali Steggall in 2019, and keeps him on a retainer of $8,000 a month. Keating’s retainer is more than triple that at $25,000. 

The documents also showed that Pratt paid $1.2 million to former Abbott staffer Richard Dowdy in 2022. Dowdy infamously called Malcolm Turnbull a cunt after Abbott was rolled for the leadership in 2015. Dowdy had worked for Abbott since 2009. 

Alongside a “final payment” of $182,000 to Charles, Pratt also claimed he donated $1 million to the Yes campaign in the recent Voice referendum at the request of a staffer from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office. 

How were the recordings taken? 

American federal law generally requires one-party consent to recording phone conversations — that is, you can record a phone call or conversation so long as you are a party to that conversation. A few states, however, relevant to Trump (including Maryland and Florida), are exceptions to this. 

A number of recordings were also obtained by American federal investigators, given Pratt’s status as a witness in the Trump classified documents trial. 

“If POTUS is having his election party at Mar-a-Lago, I’ll book as many rooms as available,” Pratt told a colleague in one of the recordings. “Reasons he should … One, it will shore up the Florida electoral college. Two, it’ll be good for business.” 

What’s Pratt’s interest in the US? 

Pratt’s business, Visy Industries, inherited from his father Richard Pratt, is the world’s largest privately owned packaging and paper company. Known as Pratt Industries in the US, the company has six plants around the country and in 2019 Trump opened a Pratt mill in Ohio, a key election state. 

Pratt’s business dealings in the US allowed Trump to brand himself as a job creator, and Pratt earned himself the former president’s favour. 

A draft copy of a speech Pratt was due to deliver in 2019 described his “strategic” interests in the US and with regards to Trump: “My membership has given me a seat at the table where the president relaxes socially, and mingles with his guests … The key thing being a member at Mar-a-Lago has done has been that I see the president a few times a year.”

One crossed-out sentence read: “President Trump is a very reciprocal man.”

What’s Trump got to say about it? 

As the revelations around Pratt made their way around the world, the outspoken former president blew off in his trademark fashion, taking to social media to slam The New York Times‘ reporting, as well as Pratt, who he has previously described as a “great gentleman … perhaps Australia’s most successful man”. 

“The Failing New York Times story … about a red-haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News,” he wrote on X. 

“I never spoke to him about Submarines but I did speak to him about creating jobs in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because that’s what I’m all about — JOBS, A GREAT ECONOMY, LOW TAXES, NO INFLATION, ENERGY, DOMINANCE, STRONG BORDERS, NO ENDLESS WARS, LOW INTEREST RATES, and much more!”

Is this the end of a very rewarding friendship? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.