Malcolm Turnbull, who has spent much of this week defending government secrecy over his phone conversation with Donald Trump, has just been done a favour by the forces of media scrutiny and public accountability.
On the surface, this is just another SNAFU - another uncontrolled leak that has gazumped the Prime Minister's agenda, right when he wants to talk about tax cuts, cheaper electricity, and affordable childcare.
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Turnbull soft on Trump
While other world leaders take a strong stand against Donald Trump's anti-immigration policy, our PM has tried to skirt the issue.
But look deeper.
The real import of the Washington Post's bombshell coverage of that telephone conversation is that it vindicates Turnbull's hitherto lame protest to have acted strongly in Australia's interests.
The corollary point is that Trump is the Mad King: volatile, vainglorious, and untrustworthy. Turnbull is right to handle him with kid gloves.
Suddenly, Turnbull's grim press conference demeanour on Monday is explained.
As is the Prime Minister's frustration at the widely held sense that he had not pushed back, and had not forcefully spoken up for Australian citizens, in response to Trump's seven-nation entry ban to the US.
Australian government sources confirm the Washington Post's story is substantially correct. Trump was angry, did describe the Obama deal as the worst he'd seen, and did treat the Australian leader with contempt.
But Turnbull persisted.
Presumably someone who stood up to Margaret Thatcher, Kerry Packer, and Conrad Black has seen bravado and alpha-male bullying before.
Heroically, the government still hopes to salvage its deal over the 1250 refugees, despite equivocations and a bizarre tweet by Trump on Thursday afternoon which appears to have all but killed it off.
The pre-eminent danger now is not this precarious deal, but the risk of sustained damage to the US-Australian relationship.
Trump is now gainsaying his own private commitments, via Twitter. This is an extraordinary situation and one that is almost impossible to manage. American prestige is on the line.
World leaders be warned: Trump's conversations are not private and his word, unreliable.
Bill Shorten complained that once again, Australians have discovered important developments from sources at the American end. That is indeed a concern, given that news of the telephone conversation on Sunday morning was first revealed by the White House. Ditto for the number of refugees to be taken from Nauru and Manus.
Yet Shorten's is a cheap shot unless he intends to make his sensitive conversations with world leaders public, should he become prime minister. Of course he would not.
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