US President Trump has told Kevin Rudd that “all is forgiven” after a tense moment at the White House when he was reminded of his previous attacks before he was appointed as Australia’s ambassador.

After the pair sparred during a press conference, Australian officials present at the meeting have told news.com.au there was a further exchange after the press conference.

“Is this the guy?,’’ Mr Trump asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as he pointed to Mr Rudd as the media was being ushered out of the room.

“He seems like a nice guy,’’ he quipped.

Eyewitnesses say that the Prime Minister said that Mr Rudd, a former Australian prime minister, was a nice guy prompting more laughter.

“All is forgiven,’’ Mr Trump said after subjecting him to global humiliation during the televised press conference.

Officials present say that Mr Rudd then offered another “genuine” apology for his past remarks which included describing Mr Trump as a “village idiot.”

Australian officials insist that the US President’s decision to hold the signing deal in the cabinet room was a huge honour and a sign of respect to Australia.

After the press conference, Mr Trump and Mr Rudd had a working lunch which was described by officials as “an excellent bilateral working lunch.”

“It went really well,’’ an official noted.

Mr Rudd was part of those talks and while the discussions were led by the Prime Minister and the US President, he participated in those talks and according to those present there were “no issues.”

‘Untenable’: Huge call as Rudd humiliated

Liberal leader Sussan Ley has described the situation with Mr Rudd as “untenable” urging the Prime Minister to recall him as US ambassador.

After the US President was reminded of Mr Rudd’s past comments by Sky News journalist Andrew Clennell, he told the ambassador “I don’t like you” and quipped he “never will.”

Before becoming Australia’s envoy in Washington, the former prime minister had called Mr Trump a “village idiot” and “traitor to the West”.

The interaction has taken the internet by storm, with commentators and reporters around the world sharing the moment.

Ms Ley however, didn’t see the funny side.

“It’s taken nearly a year to get this meeting, and that’s been a failure of the ambassador,’’ Ms Ley told Sky News.

“And when the ambassador is the punchline of the joke and the Prime Minister is actually laughing at him, I think that tells us all we need to know about the fact that it’s probably not reasonable that he continue in the role.

“I don’t believe he should stay in that role. And to see the Prime Minister actually laughing at his own ambassador in the room when the President made a joke, I think it’s untenable.”

Will Australia now sack Kevin Rudd?

Australia’s former ambassador the United States Arthur Sinodinos has weighed in on the agonising exchange over Kevin Rudd.

After the US President was reminded of Mr Rudd’s past comments by Sky News journalist Andrew Clennell, he told the ambassador “I don’t like you” and quipped he “never will.”

Before becoming Australia’s envoy in Washington, the former prime minister had called Mr Trump a “village idiot” and “traitor to the West”.

But the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President appeared to laugh off the exchange with reports Mr Trump later suggested he “forgave” Mr Rudd was spotted apologising to the US president after the exchange.

Speaking on Channel Nine’s Today program, host Karl Stefanovic pointed to the “deliciously awkward” moment but Mr Sinodinos suggested Anthony Albanese would not be rushing to dump the ambassador.

“Look, you know, in this business, you live by the sword, you die by the sword,’’ Mr Sinodinos said.

“Clearly, some remarks that Kevin had made in the past got picked up by the President, or he was reminded of them and made his views very clear.

“I don’t think this means that Prime Minister Albanese is about to junk the ambassador or anything like that. They’re very close, and it would look as if he was succumbing to pressure to do that.

“But look, overall a very positive day for Australia. I think in the US without the Prime Minister having to sort of be too obsequious.

“So I think it was handled well. And the critical minerals deal meant there was something positive they could announce, and I think that created the right atmosphere for the deal.

“Big bonus for us is that Aukus got a mention and that president indicated he was very much on side about getting aukus done, took ownership of it by saying the previous lot were too slow on this. I’m going to fix this and accelerate it. It’s fantastic that they’ve said what they’ve said about Aukus. So good day in Washington.”

Why China “won’t like it”

Australia’s former ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said that China “won’t like” the critical minerals deal with the US.

“China has dominated those supply chains for a long time,’’ Mr Sinodinos said.

“They’ve manipulated the prices. They’re critical, sorts of defence and other tech applications. So it’s important for us to have sovereign capability in this area. And this is a great deal, I think, for allowing Australian producers and American counterparts to work together, not just on extraction, but also processing.

“The deal involves processing in Australia as well.”

Speaking to the media before signing, Mr Trump said the deal had been negotiated over the course of “four to five months”.

“It was sort of good timing that we got it done just in time for the visit,” he said.

“We work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals and lots of other things. And we’ve had a very good relationship. We’ve been working on that for quite a while.

“In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them.”