Trump softens: ‘I love Australia’
Government confident refugee deal will proceed
DONALD Trump’s top officials moved to smooth over a rift with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by insisting on his “deep admiration” for the Australian people.
Australia’s Ambassador to Washington, Joe Hockey, was summoned to the White House yesterday following the explosive leaks of an angry spat between the pair during a phone conversation on Sunday.
The US President, who accused Mr Turnbull of trying to send “the next Boston bombers” to the US as part of an asylum-seeker deal for refugees held on Manus Island and Nauru, later said he loved Australia and would “respect” the deal made with former US president Barack Obama.
“I have a lot of respect for Australia,” Mr Trump said.
“I love Australia as a country but I have a problem where for whatever reason president Obama said they were going to take probably well over 1000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons.”
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said last night he was confident the US would honour the deal to resettle about 1200 held in detention.
Mr Trump’s senior advisers, chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, invited Mr Hockey to the White House to assure him of US support for a key ally.
“Mr Priebus and Mr Bannon had a productive meeting with the Australian ambassador at the White House,” a US official told CNN soon after Mr Hockey left the building.
“They conveyed the President’s deep admiration for the Australian people.”
Mr Bannon was in the Oval Office during the nowinfamous “worst call of them all” call between Mr Trump and Mr Turnbull.
Respected Republican Senator John McCain, a Vietnam War hero and former presidential nominee, also phoned Mr Hockey to express his “unwavering support” for the US-Australian relationship.
In a sign of unrest over the diplomatic incident within Republican ranks in Washington, he said Mr Trump’s treatment of Mr Turnbull was “unnecessary and frankly harmful”.
“Australia, they fought alongside us in wars including losing over 500 brave Australians in the Vietnam War, which some of us remember,” Senator McCain said.
Former Labor prime minister and foreign minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday the US-Australia relationship was “big enough, old enough and ugly enough to cope with this snafu”.