Donald Trump hectored Malcolm Turnbull over refugee deal in 'worst' phone call
Updated
Senior Australian Government sources have confirmed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump had a "robust" and shorter than expected phone call, which Mr Trump reportedly labelled "the worst by far" of a clutch of calls to world leaders.
Key points:
- The ABC has spoken to senior Government sources who say The Washington Post report is "substantially accurate"
- Mr Trump reportedly claimed his conversation with Mr Turnbull was by far the worst of the day
- "I'm not going to comment on these reports of a conversation," PM says
According to The Washington Post, Mr Trump claimed the refugee resettlement deal struck with former US president Barack Obama was "the worst deal ever", before abruptly ending the 25-minute phone call.
Mr Trump reportedly accused the Prime Minister of seeking to export the "next Boston bombers" to the US, and complained that the deal was going to kill him politically.
He reportedly said "I don't want these people" while discussing the resettlement deal with Mr Turnbull.
At one point, Mr Trump reportedly claimed his conversation with Mr Turnbull was by far the worst of a day on which he also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the room during the call were Mr Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon, press secretary Sean Spicer and national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The ABC has spoken to senior Australian Government sources who say The Washington Post report is "substantially accurate".
Australian officials say the conversation was "robust" and "shorter than expected", while one minister has told the ABC that "Trump hates this deal".
The revelations come amid mixed messages from the White House and the State Department, both of which issued statements on the refugee resettlement deal — the latter confirming it would go ahead, while the White House said the President remained undecided.
Turnbull says relationship 'very strong'
Mr Turnbull refused to weigh in on the reports when pressed on the issue today.
"I'm not going to comment on these reports of a conversation," he said.
Mr Turnbull said conversations with world leaders are conducted "candidly, frankly, privately", but stressed that Australia's solid relationship with the US was still in place.
"I can assure you the relationship is very strong," he said.
"The fact we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance.
"But as Australians know me very well — I stand up for Australia in every forum — public or private."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called on Mr Turnbull to confirm or deny the accuracy of the reports.
"He made it clear that he had a constructive discussion and that the refugee deal, which Labor supports, was on track," he said.
"But now it appears another different version of the same conversation has emerged. I just say to Turnbull, talk straight to the Australian people. Tell us what's going on."
PM insists Trump gave him assurance on deal
Despite refusing to comment on the reports, Mr Turnbull remained confident the resettlement deal would continue.
"I can only say as I have said before, that I received the assurance that I did from the President himself," he said.
"That assurance was confirmed by the President's spokesman in the briefing room of the White House.
"That — and our officials, our respective officials — are continuing to work on the implementation of the arrangements. That's the position."
In a statement, the US embassy in Canberra said Mr Trump's decision to honour the refugee agreement had not changed, and Mr Spicer's comments stand.
"This was just reconfirmed to the State Department from the WH and on to this embassy at 1315 Canberra time," it read.
Mr Turnbull described the call as "constructive" when addressing the media on Monday, saying the pair "acknowledged the already strong and deep relationship between the United States and Australia".
A readout of the call from the White House stated that the pair "emphasised the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally".
Philip Rucker, the journalist who broke the story for The Washington Post, told the ABC he had spoken with senior US officials who were briefed on the phone call.
He described the phone call as "extraordinary" and said it was uncommon for personal phone calls between leaders to leaked to the media with such detail.
Photo:
Donald Trump reportedly hates the resettlement deal with Australia. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
Topics: world-politics, federal-government, government-and-politics, donald-trump, turnbull-malcolm, united-states, australia
First posted
