05 August, 2017
Donald Trump pleaded with Mexico's president to stop saying he would not pay for a border wall and struggled to grasp the premise of a refugee swap deal with Australia, an unprecedented leak of transcripts of presidential phone calls has revealed.
AZ: Mr Trump apparently walked into his phone call with Mr Turnbull with no clear understanding of the details of the refugee resettlement agreement, aside from what "somebody" told him the day before.
Trump also says "I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den", before offering Nieto help with his country's own drug problem: "You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with, and we are willing to help you with that big-league".
"It does not oblige you to take one person that you do not want", Turnbull told Trump during the call, in remarks criticised by refugee advocates as the Australian leader going through the motions.
Trump responded, "You can not say that to the press".
Speaking to his Australian counterpart, Mr Trump became irritated that the USA was expected to honour an agreement made by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, to accept 1250 refugees held in Australian processing centres on remote Pacific islands.
Trump, who on January 27 signed an executive order suspending the United States' refugee program, said the deal "is going to kill me" and agreeing to it would make him look like a "weak and ineffective leader". "They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people". "And now I am agreeing to take 2000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position", Mr Trump said.
The president praised Mr Turnbull for being "worse than I am" on rejecting refugees, but bemoaned the agreement.
The transcripts of that conversation and a call with the Mexican president have been published by the Washington Post.
"You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it", Turnbull said. "This is ridiculous", said the US President, as he abruptly ends the call.
Mr Trump and Mr Pena Nieto met in an impromptu visit Mr Trump made to Mexico during his presidential campaign.
Greens senator Nick McKim said the transcript proved the Turnbull government trades refugees like cattle in a market place. Those are lovely words and I do not think I can speak that beautifully, okay?
He told Turnbull, "Look, I spoke to [Vladimir] Putin, [Angela] Merkel, [Shinzo] Abe of Japan, to France today, and this was my most unpleasant call, because I will be honest with you". This agreement pre-dated the USA deal and the government has denied the two arrangements amount to a "people swap".
"I guarantee you they [refugees] are bad". They said Mr Turnbull only raised the Central America matter to help convince President Trump to honour the deal. That is why they are in prison right now.
"They were from wherever they were", Trump said. Trump captured New Hampshire in the Republican primary race, but lost it to Hillary Clinton in the general election.
