President Trump Hangs Up on Australia’s Prime Minister
President Donald Trump abruptly ended a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the leader of one of America’s closest allies. The phone call was reportedly cut short after the two exchanged heated words over an old refugee agreement.
Senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post that Trump berated Turnbull over an agreement struck during the Obama administration that would ask the U.S. to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center. “This is the worst deal ever,” Trump reportedly said — the day after he signed an executive order that suspended the U.S. refugee program. Trump reportedly told the prime minister that he was “going to get killed” politically and even accused Australia of trying to export the “next Boston bombers.”
Trump would call the refugees “illegal immigrants” on Twitter.
Australian media confirms that Trump was “yelling” during the call in an apparent attempt to bully the prime minister. Australia’s Nine News reported that Turnbull responded to the erratic behavior by saying: “You’re a businessman. I’m a businessman. A deal is a deal.”
Twenty-five minutes into the phone call, which was originally scheduled to last an hour, Trump reportedly hung up on the prime minister. The hostile conversation has left Australian political commentators dumbfounded.
