Resurfaced footage showing Kevin Rudd calling Donald Trump a ‘village idiot’ and ‘incoherent’ has reignited calls for his removal as Australia’s ambassador to the United States.

The footage, aired by Sky News’ Sharri Markson on Monday night, captured Rudd speaking in a 2021 webinar with Indian politician and former diplomat Dr Shashi Tharoor.

‘The United States, in the past four years, has been run by a village idiot,’ Mr Rudd said.

‘People have seen China continuing to be competent in its national statecraft and the United States increasingly incompetent in its national statecraft under Trump.’

These comments came to light just days after Rudd quietly deleted tweets from 2020, where he called Trump ‘the most destructive president in history’, as he faced calls to step down from the diplomatic posting.

Before he was appointed ambassador, Rudd had also labelled Trump a ‘political liability,’ a ‘problem for the world,’ and a ‘traitor to the West.’

On Tuesday, economist Leith van Onselen urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to fire Rudd.

‘The first thing the federal government should do is expel Kevin Rudd from Washington because he is an embarrassment.

‘He has basically attacked Donald Trump ruthlessly before the election, and now that he is elected, he [Kevin Rudd] is untenable.

‘Australia has to work with whoever the President is. Donald Trump has been elected, he got elected with a stomping majority, we’ve got to work with it.

‘It’s pretty untenable to have an ambassador there who is so anti-Trump – they should remove him straight away and replace him with someone else.’

In response to the news of Rudd’s tweets being deleted, his office was forced to release a statement saying he removed it ‘out of respect for the office of President of the United States’.

‘In his previous role as the head of an independent US-based think tank, Mr Rudd was a regular commentator on American politics.

‘Following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has now removed these past commentaries from his personal website and social media channels,’ the statement read.

‘Ambassador Rudd looks forward to working with President Trump and his team to continue strengthening the US-Australia alliance.’

Trump was confronted about Rudd’s hostility towards him in a March interview with British politician Nigel Farage.

‘If he is at all hostile, he will not be there for long,’ Trump said.

Meanwhile, before the US election, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, said it would be ‘kind of hard’ for the government to keep Rudd in Washington if he hadn’t shown signs of a ‘change of heart’ towards Trump.

‘It’s not my decision, but I do think it would be nice to have a person who appreciates all Donald Trump has gone through to want to serve our country at this moment, this really critical moment in the history of America,’ she told Sky News.

‘Obviously, that is a little bit tough to take, and maybe we would want to choose someone else (for the US embassy top job).’

While Rudd is being haunted by past comments he made about Trump, he isn’t alone among Labor figures in making unflattering remarks about the brash real estate mogul turned politician.

A recently resurfaced 2017 video showed Mr Albanese at a Q&A at Splendour in the Grass when he was serving as Labor’s transport and infrastructure spokesman while in opposition.

Asked how he would ‘deal with Trump’, Mr Albanese replied: ‘With trepidation.’

‘We have an alliance with the US, we’ve got to deal with him, but that doesn’t mean that you’re uncritical about it,’ Mr Albanese said.

‘He (Trump) scares the sh*t out of me and I think it’s of some concern the leader of the free world thinks that you can conduct politics through 140 characters on Twitter overnight.’

Sunrise host Nat Barr suggested Mr Albanese may need to apologise after Trump was last week voted in as President of the United States for the second time.

‘No, I look forward to working with President Trump,’ he insisted.

‘I’ve demonstrated, I think, my ability to work with world leaders and to develop relationships with them, which are positive.

‘And I think that I’ve demonstrated in the two-and-a-half years that I’ve had the honour of being Prime Minister.’