Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Clive Palmer’s Anti-Trans ‘Trumpet of Patriots’ Party

One week after the High Court blocked Clive Palmer from registering the United Australia Party for the 2025 election, the billionaire announced the formation of a new party: Trumpet of Patriots.

Sporting an AI-generated logo and consisting of one spokesperson without any registered candidates, members or written policies, the new party was announced in a hastily-organised, reportedly chaotic press conference.

During the conference Palmer made an obvious effort to pronounce the name of his new party as the “Trump-pet of Patriots” and made repeated references to the American leader while also vowing to ‘Make Australia Great Again’.

This MAGA-inspired venture into federal politics is only one of many projects Palmer has backed over the years – all seeking to introduce right-wing and anti-LGBTQIA+ ideas into Australia’s political discourse.

Newscorp political editor Samantha Maiden observed that Palmer is “really acting as a bit of a surrogate in some ways for the Coalition and the Liberal Party. He can say these outrageous things, he’s going to funnel preferences to the conservatives and he’s also going to shift the political debate.”

History of the UAP / CPUAP / PUP / Trumpet of Patriots

Palmer has stated that he intended his party to be a reformation of the United Australia Party that ran from 1931 to 1945. This claim has been an ongoing source of controversy, with Palmer’s United Australia Party website stating that former prime ministers Joseph Lyons, Robert Menzies, and Billy Hughes were members of Palmer’s party.

Previously a supporter of the National Party and Queensland’s LNP, Clive Palmer started the Palmer United Party in 2013 and won the seat of Fairfax in the Sunshine Coast by 53 votes. Glenn Lazarus and Jacqui Lambie were elected as federal senators for Queensland and Tasmania on preferences.

At its height in 2014, the Palmer United Party party held 9 seats over state and federal parliaments and briefly held the balance of power in the federal Senate before internal conflicts quickly led to its collapse. Lambie and Lazarus resigned the party to become independents, along with many of its state politicians.

Palmer left parliament in 2016, and deregistered the Palmer United Party. In 2018, he registered the United Australia Party. 

The UAP contested every lower house seat in the 2019 Australian federal election but did not win a single seat in the House of Representatives or in the Senate — despite having spent over $60 million on advertising. However, it had directed preferences to the Liberals, which helped secure the Coalition’s majority.

In 2020, Palmer was charged with fraud and corporate misconduct offences related to millions of dollars which had been transferred to the Palmer United Party, and then changed the party’s name to the Clive Palmer United Australian Party.

In 2022, the party changed its name back to the United Australia Party. Despite having spent over $100 million on advertising, it only won a single seat. Its senator, Ralph Babet, has long been controversial — a strong Trump, he has expressed support for misogynist social media influencer Andrew Tate, and in 2023, turned up at a Monash City council meeting to oppose a drag story time event.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commented, “A bloke who spends over $100m to deliver one senate seat with a bloke who sits in the corner and just engages in conspiracy theories I don’t think represents value for money.” 

In recent months, Palmer had reportedly been in talks with Pauline Hanson to merge their parties.

In February 2025, the High Court ruled that Palmer cannot register the United Australia Party for the next federal election, as a party cannot be deregistered and re-registered within the same electoral cycle under Australian law.

The anti-trans manifesto from Trumpet of Patriots

“Men should not be in women’s sports – especially boxing,” announced Trumpet of Patriots‘ leader Suellen Wrightson during the press conference. 

Anti-trans rhetoric was a central feature of the press conference, with Palmer continuing, “Our policy is to recognise that there are two genders, a male and a female.”

“We don’t want men in women’s sports and we don’t want males dressed as females confusing our children in our schools.

“All children should be entitled to a normal, safe environment in our schools and public toilets.

“All children must be entitled to decide who they are and what their sexual orientation is when they’re adults, not have it foisted on them before they’ve even commenced puberty.”

Homophobia and transphobia has long been a fixture in Palmer’s parties, with candidates calling lesbians “big fat fugly chicks”, targeting drag queen story time, and posting homophobic rants about “woke ass clowns”.

The Palmer United Party expressed strong opposition to same-sex marriage during the plebiscite, with the unique perspective that marriage should be left entirely to religion and governments should only recognise civil ceremonies.

It opposed hate speech laws on the grounds of free speech.

Until this Trump-esque rebranding, it has not focused on gender issues.

The many projects of Clive Palmer

Palmer’s ambitions have not stopped at politics, with the billionaire promising in 2013 to build the Titanic II, which would honour those who travelled on the original Titanic. This project was abandoned in 2015. 

In 2011, Palmer opened a park filled with 160 animatronic dinosaurs, including a 20-metre long Tyrannosaurus Rex called Jeff. The park was closed in 2015 and is the subject of ongoing legal disputes, which Palmer claims is an attempt to distract him from politics.

After buying the Gold Coast United Football Club in 2008, Palmer capped the number of fans able to attend games in order to avoid paying transport subsidies. This led to a backlash and legal action. In 2012, Palmer’s licence to own the club was revoked by Football Federation Australia (FFA), even though he had redesigned the player’s shirts to read ‘Freedom of Speech’. After losing his licence, Palmer founded Football Australia, a rival to the FFA.

Despite these legal issues, Palmer’s net worth rose from $600 million in 2016 to $23 billion in 2023, according to AFR. 

Could this be his last election?

The government’s new election laws come into effect in 2028. This law will cap political donations from an individual to $20,000 and limit the total any candidate during an election to $800,000. This means 2025’s federal election will be the last one that Clive Palmer can spend big on.

However, the Trumpet for Patriots party has yet to register any candidates, suggesting that it might be a struggle for Palmer to even effectively engage in this election. This has previously been a challenge for Palmer, whose previous parties have fielded multiple ghost candidates, conspiracy theorists, and people facing criminal convictions.

However, as previous elections have shown, a lack of elected candidates does not mean a lack of political influence. Through preference deals and media appearances, Palmer has managed to secure a rightward swing in key election battles.