So why, why didn't they?

Well, well Clacton, it's, it's east of London in place, you know, in Essex.

It's an older, poorer, and whiter electorate than most of the country, so it's very much plays to Farage's strengths.

But, you know, in running, Farage has put on hold this sort of Parliamentary Standards Commission investigation into the £5 million donation.

That process, if he wins the seat, that will restart, and that may well find adverse findings against Farage, and then we could be back here again in a few months' time having another by-election.

And that is when the major parties will hop in.

You know, they'll, they'll hopefully then be able, from their point of view, be able to then argue, "Well, this guy's done the wrong thing.

They all do the same thing.

So on that score, I mean, if Trump was to look at this ledger, he would surely find that Australia is crucial in terms of what it provides geographically to the US position in Asia.

Yeah, but as James just said, that hasn't worked out for us in the case of getting an exemption on steel and aluminium tariffs with those negotiations that Trump has imposed.

So I think in terms of security, while we do have a lot of credit in the bank, I don't think Trump will necessarily see it that way.

Trump sees countries freeloading off the US security umbrella.

You know, he's very critical of South Korea and Japan where US troops are stationed in significant numbers.

We like to think that the US is doing the world a favour in terms of its security presence.

Trump just sees it as a burden.

Andrew, does what's happening in Europe embolden Xi Jinping to think about making a move on Taiwan? How worried do you think the Australian government is about that?