Donald Trump hits out at 'dumb' Australia refugee deal in 'terse' phone call with country's PM

Bullish: US President Donald Trump
EPA
David Gardner2 February 2017

President Donald Trump blasted a “dumb deal” for the US to take in hundreds of Australian asylum seekers following a fraught phone call with Australia’s prime minister.

Mr Trump tweeted his disgust for the deal struck by the Obama administration to resettle up to 1,250 mostly Muslim refugees being held in detention camps on Pacific islands in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

“Do you believe it?” tweeted Mr Trump. “The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”

Under the terms of the deal - which now appears to be in jeopardy - Australia would, in turn, resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The blow up came just hours after the Washington Post reported there had been a tense exchange between Mr Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during their first telephone call as national leaders at the weekend.

During the call, an angry Mr Trump reportedly berated Mr Turnbull and dubbed the resettlement agreement “the worst deal ever.”

'Terse' phonecall: Australia's PM Malcolm Turnbull 
AP

The President allegedly accused Mr Turnbull of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers” - a reference to Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, US citizens born in Kyrgyzstan, who set off two bombs at the 2013 Boston marathon.

He also boasted to Mr Turnbull about the size of his election victory, according to reports.

Mr Trump is said to have abruptly ended the expected hour-long conversation after 25 minutes.

Mr Turnbull said the call on Saturday had been frank and candid but refused to provide further details on a “private” conversation.

Hours later, the US president upped the stakes by publishing his confrontational tweet, an increasingly common tactic.

It wasn’t the only strained call the new president has handled in his short time in the White House. He also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican leader Enrique Pena Nieto on Saturday but reportedly said his exchange with Mr Turnbull was the “worst call by far.”

Nevertheless, the conversation with Mr Pena Nieto hardly sounded warm and fuzzy.

According to a transcript of the conversation that emerged last night, Mr Trump warned that he was willing to send in US troops to control the “bad hombres down there.”

Mr Trump complained that not enough was being done by the Mexican military.

Thousands of protesters march to Downing Street in Trump rally

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“You have a bunch of bad hombres down there,” Mr Trump told Mr Pena Nieto, according to the leaked excerpt. “You aren't doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn't, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”

The excerpt of the call did not detail who exactly Mr Trump considered “bad hombres” but the assumption was that he was discussing Mexico’s drug kingpins.

The phone call was supposed to patch things up between the two leaders who have been at loggerheads over Mr Trump’s claim that he wants Mexico to pay for a border wall to be built between the two countries.

Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for Mexico's presidential office, denied the tone of the conversation was hostile or humiliating. He insisted it was respectful.

“It is absolutely false that the president of the United States threatened to send troops to Mexico,” he said in an interview last night with Radio Formula.

Mr Trump has used the phrase “bad hombres” before. In an October presidential debate, he vowed to get rid the US of “drug lords” and “bad people.”

“We have some bad hombres here, and we're going to get them out,” he said. The phrase ricocheted on social media with Trump opponents saying he was denigrating immigrants.

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