Donald Trump teaches Malcolm Turnbull a lesson in not playing nice
Updated
Australia is learning the hard way that US President Donald Trump is in office every bit the rule-breaker he promised to be on the way to the White House.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been on the receiving end of what we now know to be a concerted campaign by the President — or his advisers — to publicly register his displeasure with the Obama-Turnbull refugee resettlement deal he is reluctantly "considering" honouring.
Since Sunday the Prime Minister has followed all norms and conventions of high level diplomacy, describing his first conversation with Mr Trump from the Oval Office as "constructive" and thanking the President "for his commitment to honour" the resettlement agreement.
Timeline: Conflicting claims
- 10:00am (AEDT): White House says Donald Trump considering deal
- 11:00am: State Department says deal is on
- 2:00pm: US Embassy says deal is on
- 3:00pm: Trump tweets he will study deal
Since Wednesday (Australian time) the White House — or officials with access to its workings — has relentlessly pursued a strategy to, if not abandon the deal, then at least make everyone understand Mr Trump will not be honouring it willingly.
The strategy finds what the Australian Government had hoped was its denouement in the excruciatingly detailed briefing of the two leaders' conversation given to the Washington Post by what its reporter Philip Rucker describes as "senior US officials".
It is not just the President's reflection on the Turnbull conversation as "the worst call by far", according to The Washington Post.
It is not just the expression of Mr Trump's view that Australia is trying to export the "next Boston bombers".
Nor is the leaking of the fact that Mr Trump abruptly wrapped up the conversation sooner than anticipated, the action of the administration that should most alarm the Turnbull Government in its future dealings with Washington.
It is that the White House itself has acted with determination for two days to publicly cast doubt over the status of the deal, climaxing in Mr Trump's extraordinary tweet pledging to "study this dumb deal".
The first strike had come in an unsolicited phone call from a "senior White House official" to the ABC's Washington bureau chief Zoe Daniel, stressing to her that despite press secretary Sean Spicer's public assurance the deal "will go forward" the President was now "still considering" whether to proceed with it.
Mr Turnbull got through a National Press Club Address and an interview on the ABC's 7.30 unshakeable in his belief that the "the Trump administration is committed to progress the arrangements to honour the deal".
Still, the White House was not yet finished in casting as much public doubt over the prospects as it could.
On Thursday, it issued a written statement to the ABC's Washington Bureau.
"The President is still considering whether or not he will move forward with this deal at this time," it said.
"He is considering doing it because of the long and good relationship we have with Australia."
Then, within two hours of the release of that statement, the most telling account of presidential displeasure went live with the publication of the Washington Post article to more than 70 million digital readers.
'If somebody screws you, screw them back in spades'
For the 1,250 refugees waiting for resettlement as much as the Turnbull Government, much rests on the deal still standing — and for now, it is.
The US State Department through its Canberra Embassy has noted:
"[Mr] Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement has not changed and spokesman Spicer's comments stand. This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the White House and on to the [Canberra Embassy] at 13:15pm Canberra time."
But that statement does not mask the clearest of facts — the White House has deliberately set out to place on the public record, and which is now conceded in words of a Turnbull minister, that "Trump hates this deal".
He may still honour it, if only for the inner deal-broker within him to extract a few favours in return from the Turnbull Government.
Or, as businessman Trump once famously put it himself:
"If somebody screws you, screw them back in spades."
Leaders the world over — beware.
Photo:
Donald Trump reportedly hates the resettlement deal with Australia. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
Topics: donald-trump, turnbull-malcolm, government-and-politics, federal-government, world-politics, australia, united-states
First posted
