Trump calls refugee swap deal with Australia 'dumb'

USPresident DonaldTrumplabelled a refugee swap deal withAustralia "dumb" on Thursday after a Washington Post report of an acrimonious telephone call with Australia's prime minister threatened a rare rift in ties between the two staunch allies.

The Post reported thatTrumpdescribed the resettlement plan as "the worst deal ever" and accusedAustraliaof trying to export the "next Boston bombers". It said the call had been scheduled to last an hour butTrumpcut it short after 25 minutes whenAustralian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tried to turn to subjects such as Syria.

Turnbull told reporters the call withTrumpat the weekend had been frank and candid but refused to give further details.

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"I do stand up forAustralia. My job is to defendAustralian interests," Turnbull said in Melbourne.

Turnbull refused to confirm the Post report thatTrump, who had earlier spoken to world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, had angrily told him that the call was "the worst so far".

Political analysts said such acrimony was unprecedented, surpassing even the difficult relations between former USPresident Richard Nixon and thenAustralian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who pulledAustralian troops out of the Vietnam War.

"Even that was always done in the language of foreign policy niceties," said Harry Phillips, a political analyst of 40 years'experience at Edith Cowan and Curtin universities in Perth.

As reports of the conversation hit headlines on both sides of the world,Trumptweeted shortly before midnight in Washington: "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants fromAustralia. Why? I will study this dumb deal."

That threw more confusion over the status of the controversial dealAustraliaagreed with former President Barack Obama late last year for the United States to resettle up to 1,250 asylum seekers held in offshore processing camps on Pacific islands in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

In return,Australiawould resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Repercussions

The swap deal is at odds withTrump's executive order last week that suspended the USrefugee programme and restricted entry to the United States for travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

Many of those being held in theAustralian detention centres, which have drawn harsh criticism from the United Nations and rights groups, have fled violence in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer and the USEmbassy inAustraliahave both saidTrump would honour the deal. In several media appearances afterTrump's tweet, Turnbull reiterated that he believed the deal stood.

"He is saying that this is not a deal he would have made, but the question is will he honour that commitment? He has already given it," Turnbull said. "I makeAustralia’s case frankly, powerfully, forthrightly and hopefully persuasively when I deal with other leaders."

The apparent breakdown between Washington and Canberra that has developed over the resettlement deal could have serious repercussions.

Australiaand the United States are among the five nations that make up the Five Eyes group, the world's leading intelligence-sharing network.

The United States also plans to send extra military aircraft toAustralia's tropical north this year as part of a USMarines deployment that will bolster its military presence close to the disputed South China Sea.

Australiais also one of 10 USallies purchasing Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet programme.

The Post quoted unidentified senior USofficials briefed on the conversation betweenTrump and Turnbull. It also quoted the official read-out from the call, which emphasised "the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australiarelationship that is critical for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally".

It also saidTrumphad boasted to Turnbull about the size of his election victory.

(Reuters)