“Well,” he demurred, “I just take people as I know them.’’

It’s apparent that he doesn’t know Trump yet, describing him as “very practical” and someone “who’s not going to waste a day.”

“I like that about him,” enthused Morrison, who is obviously ready to do the Aussie equivalent of the Saudi sword dance. “I like that about him a lot, actually.’’

Trump may be “president non grata” nearly everywhere else, as The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker has written. But Australia’s Liberal (read Republican) government prides itself on what one top official refers to as their “deft and nonjudgmental” handling of the president.

Last year, to move past their fractious phone exchange over who would take the refugees marooned off Australia’s coast, Turnbull met with Trump on the Intrepid in New York. The Australians showed the ahistorical president a video to stress that they had fought alongside America in every major war for the last 100 years. (This may have given Trump the idea to show Kim Jong-un an inspirational video.) And they trotted out Rupert Murdoch and Greg Norman.

The president called the new prime minister the day after he took office. “I told the president I was a rubbish golfer,” Morrison said, with a wide smile, describing the 12-minute call. “I’m not sure if that phrase is well known and I think he thought I meant I was a good golfer because he started going ‘Oh, what’s your handicap?’ And I said ‘No, no, no, it means I’m not very good at it.’ He’s passionate about it. He knows all the Australian players.”

The 50-year-old father of two is the son of a police officer, not a scion of wealth. But the two share similarities: Both expediently lurched to the right on social issues. Both throw red meat to the base. Both craft their political identities with dog whistles around the issue of protecting their countries from hordes of migrants.

Before now, Morrison was best known for his campaign as immigration minister to “Stop the Boats,” turning back vessels of migrants trying to reach the shores of Fortress Australia.