New York: The revelation that Donald Trump berated Malcolm Turnbull, the leader of one of America's closest allies, during a recent official phone call has been met with shock, disbelief and some embarrassed humour in the United States, fuelling concerns about the US President badly damaging important international relationships.
The Washington Post scoop revealing the tense conversation broke late in the day in the US and went on to dominate late night news television shows and social media, with many expressing disbelief that, of all the countries the US could have offended in the first weeks of a new administration, it would be America's genial allies across the Pacific.
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US Democrats have taken to Twitter to show support for Australia after the tense Turnbull-Trump phone call, with one Republican trying to smooth relations.
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President Donald Trump has defended his "tough" approach to speaking with foreign leaders in his first public remarks since details of his phone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull became public.
Twitter used against Trump
US Democrats have taken to Twitter to show support for Australia after the tense Turnbull-Trump phone call, with one Republican trying to smooth relations.
"Dear Australia: The majority of Americans who don't support Trump want to say we are sorry. We will make it up to you in four years or less," Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman from California who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Twitter after the story broke.
"I made a Top 100 Possible Trump Administration Foreign Crises list & I gotta admit 'Rupturing US-Australia Relations' was NOT on there," senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who sits on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, also wrote.
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Lawrence O'Donnell, the left-wing commentator and host of MSNBC's The Last Word, lambasted the President for insulting Turnbull, "while having no idea that Australia has stood by us like no other ally, marched into battle with us where no other ally would go, including Vietnam, something Donald Trump would have known if he had served in Vietnam and heard those men beside him with those Australian accents, men who saved the lives of American troops".
Trump avoided serving in the Vietnam War due to a series of deferments, including a medical deferment for bone spurs in his heels.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley said much of the President's behaviour had been "extremely disturbing" and that "many of us are worried we are going to stumble into war".
David Gergen, a former presidential adviser to Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, who is now an analyst for CNN, accused Trump of bullying a friend.
"Are they playing some sort of game in the White House - how many countries can they alienate in 100 days? The list is in double digits now," he said on the network.
"We have never had a president in my memory who has bullied our friends in this way, especially heads of government."
Kevin Madden, a former adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said people had long expected that Trump, a mogul and reality television star known for his combative, impudent manner, would eventually conform to some level of political protocol, but that a pivot of that nature was never going to come.
"He's just not going to change but that's what's problematic," he said on the same CNN panel.
We have never had a president in my memory who has bullied our friends in this way, especially heads of government
"Here we have an instance where we are already alienating one of our closest allies just over a phone call ... just the tone of it was what's already caused some consternation."
It was towards the end of these late night cable shows covering the fallout from The Washington Post story that Trump, who is known for responding to television news on social media, tweeted about the controversy.
"Do you believe it? The Obama administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!" he wrote.
Amid the disbelief at the turn of events, jokes about the US going to war with Australia flooded Twitter, complete with Mad Max-themed memes.
"Who'd have thought it was possible to blow the US-Australia relationship?" The New York Times writer Nick Kristof wrote. "It's childproof. But not Trump-proof."
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