What was largely predicted to be an easy and cordial call for President Donald Trump last Saturday reportedly morphed into a bit of a disaster after the commander in chief began berating Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the phone for a refugee agreement he made with former President Barack Obama.
According to The Washington Post, the president "blasted" the prime minister for the deal, then bragged about his Electoral College win before abruptly cutting their phone call short after 25 minutes, despite it originally being scheduled for an hour. The publication reports that, prior to hanging up, he informed Turnbull that, compared to his phone calls with four other world leaders that day, "this was the worst call by far."
As ABC reports, the deal in question involves accepting 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru, and was made during the final weeks of Obama's administration. Following his phone call with Turnbull, Trump reportedly referred to it as the "world deal ever" before accusing Australia of trying to send the "next Boston bombers" to the United States and attempting to ruin him politically.
Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to further address his feelings on the deal, writing, "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!"
Prior to his tweet, the White House released a statement on Wednesday stating Trump would consider honouring the deal — while both the State Department and the U.S. Embassy confirmed to ABC the deal would move forward as long as refugees are "in accordance" with Trump's recent immigration and refugee ban.
Understandably, the internet was still pretty confused by Trump's decision to go after Australia, given the country's history of allying with the U.S. — and so, they took to social media to express their feelings on the matter.
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