US Ambassador Kevin Rudd not-so-quietly deletes critical social ...

Australia's Ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has deleted a raft of social media posts criticising Donald Trump after his victory in yesterday's election.

The former prime minister had labelled Trump "the most destructive president in history" in a 2020 tweet from his personal account – before he was appointed ambassador – adding that he "drags America and democracy through the mud".

Today, Rudd said he had deleted that post and other commentary about the president-elect to "avoid them being misconstrued".

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

"Out of respect for the office of president of the United States, and following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has now removed these past commentaries from his personal website and social media channels.

"This has been done to eliminate the possibility of such comments being misconstrued as reflecting his positions as ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian government.

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

Rudd's future in his role in the event of another Trump presidency has come under scrutiny since March.

In an interview far-right UK politician Nigel Farage that month, the Republican candidate said Rudd "won't be there long" after being told about his tweets.

"I don't know. He won't be there long if that's the case," Trump said.

"I don't know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he's not the brightest bulb. But I don't know much about him.

"But if he's at all hostile, he will not be there long."

The federal government has defended Rudd as ambassador following Trump's election victory yesterday.

"Kevin Rudd is doing a terrific job as Australia's ambassador to the United States and it says... a lot about how important we regard the relationship with the United States that we appointed a former prime minister," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this morning.

Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham said over the weekend that he would back Rudd to continue as ambassador if he was doing a good job.

"It will be up to Mr Rudd to demonstrate his capacity to continue to do the job and do it as effectively as he has been, to give him credit," Birmingham told Sky News.

"Kevin Rudd has worked the Congress hard and effectively, I would say, during his time as ambassador," he added.

"We've got outcomes there in relation to AUKUS and changes to some of the export rules that are really important in terms of better integration of our defence industries.

"We want to see that type of momentum continue."