Who is Roger Cook, the Australian politician who called JD Vance a knob?

With a one-word answer to a four-word question, the Australian politician Roger Cook set off a flurry of headlines he may hope does not catch the White House’s attention.

During a game of “finish the sentence” with a journalist on Tuesday, the premier of Western Australia was asked: “JD Vance is a …”

“Knob,” he replied emphatically, prompting laughter and applause from a crowd of mostly business leaders in the state’s capital, Perth.

A knob – at least in this context – is Australian and British slang for a penis, suggesting Cook is not the biggest fan of Donald Trump’s vice-president.

(Indeed, Australia’s public broadcaster, the ABC, ran a headline on it’s website bleeping out the word – “kn*b”.)

The premier later apologised for the comment, saying it “was a light-hearted, non-professional moment and I didn’t mean any offence”, heading off any diplomatic blowback from Washington.

So, who is Roger Cook?

The 59-year-old is the premier and leader of the Labor party in Western Australia, Australia’s gigantic westernmost state known for its pristine sandy beaches, rich mineral deposits and (sometimes) mouthy politicians.

Western Australia also happens to be home to naval bases and a shipbuilding industry that will be at the heart of the Aukus nuclear submarine deal between Australia, the UK and US.

Cook is headed to a state election on Saturday, a four-yearly vote his party is expected to comfortably win – and words like this may have only endeared him to voters.

Labor holds 53 of 59 seats in the state’s parliament after a landslide 2021 election built on the popularity of Cook’s predecessor, Mark McGowan, who famously turned the state into a hermit kingdom during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cook’s phallic word for Vance is not the first time he has been critical of the Maga leadership.

Ahead of last November’s US election, the premier said Trump represented a “dark road” for the world.

Cook was a bit more diplomatic when asked on Tuesday if he still held that view, saying “I certainly think he represents an uncertain [road]”.