President Donald Trump on Thursday didn't
appear to be in the mood to ease tensions with the Australian
Prime Minister, even as his counterpart down under looked to
move past a contentious phone call.
Less than an hour after White House press secretary Sean Spicer
offered assurances the US would uphold a deal to take in 1,250
refugees from Australia, Trump continued to fume about the
agreement, which had sparked the heated conversation with
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this weekend.
The President again cast doubt on whether the US would uphold
the agreement, while Turnbull scrambled to reassure Australians
that Trump had promised in their phone call to honor the
agreement, negotiated by the Obama administration.
"I just said, 'Why?'" I just wanted to ask a question," Trump said
describing his call with Turnbull on Saturday, which had been
scheduled for an hour but ended after 25 minutes when Trump
became frustrated.
"I said, 'Why are we doing this?' So we'll see what happens, but
the previous administration does something, you have to respect
that. But you can also say, 'Why are we doing this?'" Trump
continued.
The White House appeared to be trying to smooth over the
diplomatic dustup, which has become a flashpoint in relations
between the two nations.
Australian Ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, met with top
administration officials Reince Priebus, White House Chief of
Staff, and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon Thursday.
"Mr. Priebus and Mr. Bannon had a productive meeting with the
Australian ambassador at the White House," officials said. "They
conveyed the President's deep admiration for the Australian
people."
White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, also assured Australia
that Trump would honor the deal to take in 1,250 refugees from
Australia "out of respect for" the Prime Minister, though he made
clear that Trump was "unbelievably disappointed" and "does not
like it."
Earlier in the day, Trump referred to reports of combative
conversations he had with Turnbull and the Mexican president
over the weekend as "tough."
"We have to be tough. It's time we're going to be a little tough
folks. We're taken advantage of by every nation in the world,
virtually. It's not going to happen anymore. It's not going to
happen anymore," he said in remarks at the National Prayer
Breakfast.
'Disappointed'
The Australian Prime Minister, meanwhile, scrambled to reassure
Australians that Trump had promised in their phone call to honor
the agreement, negotiated by the Obama administration.
Turnbull took to the radio Thursday morning to debunk reports
that Trump had hung up on him to end the contentious call,
though he would not divulge other details of the conversation.
"As far as the call is concerned, I'm very disappointed that there
has been a leak of purported details of the call in Washington,"
he said in a radio interview with 2GB's Ben Fordham. "But I want
to make one observation about it. The report that the President
hung up is not correct. The call ended courteously."
The White House, for its part, did not criticize the leaking of the
conversation.
A source told chuksbooks on Wednesday that Trump expressed concern
as to how the refugee agreement from the Obama administration
would go forward given his executive order the day before
temporarily suspending the US refugee program and abruptly
ended the call because he was unhappy.
Turnbull also scrambled to assure his constituents that Trump
had pledged to honor the deal.
"He committed to honor a deal done by his predecessor that no
doubt he would say that he would not have done himself. But he
committed to stick to the deal that President Obama has done,"
Turnbull said in the radio interview. "As far as the nature of the
discussion, it was very frank and forthright. I stand up for
Australia's interests. I make Australia's case as powerfully and
persuasively as I can, wherever I am."
Pressed to explain how that jibed with Trump's tweet late
Wednesday night describing the deal as "dumb," Turnbull could
offer up little more than: "Well, that's his tweet. I'm telling you
what has been said to us and what's been said by his
spokesman and what has been said by his embassy."
The White House on Thursday appeared poised to try to clean up
the diplomatic dustup, as Spicer assured Australia that Trump
would honor the deal "out of respect for" the Prime Minister,
though he made clear that Trump was "unbelievably disappointed"
and "does not like it."
During an unrelated meeting Thursday that reporters attended,
Trump described the deal, which would take in asylum seekers
held in offshore Australian detention facilities after they were
rescued or captured by Australian naval forces, as one that would
allow "well over 1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons."
"And they though they were going to bring them and take them to
this country, and I just said, 'Why?'" Trump said. "We have to be
treated fairly also."
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