There have been a few notable stoushes between Prime Ministers and United States Presidents in recent years.
John Howard and Bill Clinton clashed over the imposition of tariffs on Australian lamb during a visit to the White House in 1999. Clinton even made Howard wait in the rain before seeing him.
Kevin Rudd fell foul of George W Bush when he boasted to his loose-lipped media mate, Chris Mitchell, that Bush didn't know what the G20 was.
More recently, Barack Obama chipped Malcolm Turnbull over the sale of the Port of Darwin to the Chinese without consulting the Americans.
But not since the rancorous days of Richard Nixon and Gough Whitlam has there been anything approaching this madness.
Everybody, Turnbull included, insists the alliance is rock solid and tickety-boo and they well may be correct. But after a long period of strong personal relations between leaders - Bush and Howard, Gillard and Obama and Turnbull and Obama - we have entered uncharted waters.
Former US Ambassador Kim Beazley once described Trump as a narcissistic buffoon and these traits appeared to come to the fore during that phone call, so dutifully leaked to the Washington Post. Trump did not treat Turnbull like the leader of a valued ally but more like a piece of s--t on his shoe.
Trump appears to have stamped his feet and screamed at the prospect of having to honour the deal Turnbull struck with Obama, a deal that jars with Trump's immigration ban and which, he later tweeted like the juvenile he is, was "dumb".
The pair had a scheduled phone call for one hour on Sunday. Trump ended it after 25 minutes.
Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
In the Washington Post report, which Australian sources said was accurate other than the suggestion Trump hung up on the Prime Minister, Turnbull had wanted to move on and discuss other issues. These included the conflict in Syria. Australia has skin in the game, having sent troops and planes back to the region to assist the fight against Islamic State.
It is incredible that Trump deigned it unworthy to discuss. Australia, for good or worse, has followed the US willingly into every conflict since World War II - Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq again.
Boffins on both sides of the Pacific counsel against overreacting, warning Trump is an oddball who complicates the politics of the alliance but cannot be allowed to threaten it.
We are told the alliance has always been deeper than the relationship or political allegiances of the nation's respective leaders.
But for the alliance to thrive, it needs popular support.
If Trump continues to treat Australia like dirt, then public support for doing anything to help the Americans, including letting them keep their troops based in Darwin, let alone following them on any frolic in the South China Sea, will quickly wane.
