Trump blames leftover 'Obama people' for leaks of his calls with Australian and Mexican leaders – and vows to ferret them out
- President Donald Trump said Obama loyalists still working for him leaked details of his phone calls with Australian and Mexican heads of state
- Trump reportedly hung up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull
- He is also said to have told Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto that he might send soldiers into Mexico to stop drug-trafficking 'bad hombres'
- Call transcripts were leaked to the Associated Press and The Washington Post
Donald Trump said on Saturday that 'Obama people' – civil servants left over from the previous White House – were behind 'disgraceful' leaks describing his phone calls with two foreign leaders.
And the president said his administration is searching 'very, very hard' for the partisan saboteurs.
He told a Fox News Channel journalist following an annual International Red Cross fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort club that 'it's a disgrace that they leaked because it's very much against our country. It's a very dangerous thing for this country.'
Trump did not elaborate on the reasons for his suspicion. An unknown number of employees who served in the Obama administration are still manning their posts, including some at the State Department.
![President Donald Trump, shown on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said Saturday that 'Obama people' were behind leaks of that call and a similar chat with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CAA45FB00000578-4196994-image-a-22_1486405290265.jpg)
President Donald Trump, shown on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, said Saturday that 'Obama people' were behind leaks of that call and a similar chat with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CC59E4400000578-4196994-image-m-36_1486405883593.jpg)
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CDB09BF00000578-4196994-image-m-34_1486405863019.jpg)
Trump reportedly tolf Peña Nieto (left) that he might send U.S. troops into Mexico to interdict drugs; he reportedly hung up on Turnbull (right) over an Obama administration pledge to accept 1,250 largely Muslim refugees housed in Australian-run camps
That, the president, suggested, presents the possibility that government workers loyal to Obama could work behind the scenes to hamstring his shift in foreign policy tactics.
Trump told Fox that some Obama administration employees are still working in his White House and on his National Security Council staff – but are on their way out.
He also said he had 'positive' relationships with both Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
But call transcripts leaked to The Washington Post and other media outlets led to reports that Trump hung up on Turnbull less than halfway through a planned hour-long call.
The stories described tension between the two leaders over the status of Obama's pledge to accept 1,250 people – mostly Middle Easterners – held in high-security Australian refugee camps.
Turnbull downplayed the tensions, insisting on Australia's '60 Minutes' program that 'it's a deal that President Trump entered into. He would not have to honor it, but he has committed' to putting the refugees into his 'extreme vetting' pipeline.
![Former U.S. president Barack Obama left office last month but many civil servants who worked in his White House are still lingering](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CAC340C00000578-4196994-image-a-37_1486405897875.jpg)
Former U.S. president Barack Obama left office last month but many civil servants who worked in his White House are still lingering
The earlier call with Peña Nieto made news with an Associated Press reports that Trump threatened to send military troops across the U.S.-Mexico border to interdict narcotics because there are 'bad hombres down there.'
Against that backdrop, Peña Nieto spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said in a radio interview that 'The things that have been said are nonsense and a downright lie.'
'I know it with absolute certainty, there was no threat,' Sanchez said.
The White House later suggested the comment was real, but made jokingly.
In a third twist, Trump told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in an interview broadcast Sunday that Peña Nieto is willing to accept the American military's help to fight drug cartels.
![Millions of dollars worth of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs cross Mexico's famously porous U.S. border every year](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CC414E400000578-4196994-image-a-38_1486405908530.jpg)
Millions of dollars worth of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs cross Mexico's famously porous U.S. border every year
![This file photo shows a camp on the Island of Nauru where Australia holds refugees hoping to resettle in the U.S., most of whom are from majority-Muslim nations](http://web.archive.org./web/20170206193932/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/06/18/3CBFAAFA00000578-4196994-This_file_photo_shows_a_camp_on_the_Island_of_Nauru_where_Austra-a-40_1486406262647.jpg)
This file photo shows a camp on the Island of Nauru where Australia holds refugees hoping to resettle in the U.S., most of whom are from majority-Muslim nations
'I did talk to him about it. I want to help him with it,' Trump said.
'He seemed very willing to get help from us because he has got a problem ... and it's a real problem for us. Don't forget those cartels are operating in our country. And they're poisoning the youth of our country.'
It's unclear if federal investigators are probing the leaks.
But White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a separate Fox interview that 'the president takes these leaks very seriously.'
'That's troubling and I think the president has asked the team to look into this because those are very serious implications,' Spicer said.
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