WAITING FOR THE CALL
TRUMP’S TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY
Bill English is still waiting for his first phone call from US President Donald Trump — but at least he has a letter.
“I received a letter from President Trump on the occasion of Waitangi Day,” said the Prime Minister yesterday.
“I look forward to the two of us talking by phone soon.”
A spokesman said the letter acknowledged Waitangi Day and the close relationship between New Zealand and the US.
English may be having mixed feelings about the phone call, after reports yesterday that Trump ripped into his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull.
The Washington Post reported Trump abruptly ended the call halfway and described it as the “worst call by far” out of five that day, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump had reportedly boasted about his election win and objected to Turnbull pushing him to honour an agreement to take 1250 refugees from Nauru and Manus.
Trump — who has suspended refugee processing to the US — was reported as saying he was “going to get killed” politically and that Aus- tralia was trying to export “the next Boston bombers”.
Turnbull has refused to comment on the reports, but has said Trump agreed to honour the refugee agreement.
The reports paint a very different picture of Trump from his first call to Turnbull, according to Herald editorial writer and Key biographer John Roughan.
Former Prime Minister John Key spoke of a conversation he had with Turnbull to Roughan for an updated edition of the biography John Key — Portrait of a Prime Minister, which is due for release next week.
Key said that shortly after the United States election he was called by Turnbull who told him he had spoken to then President-elect Donald Trump.
Key asked how it went and Turnbull described Trump as “thoroughly professional and businesslike”.
When Key then asked what Turnbull thought Trump would be like, Turnbull replied: “Easier to deal with than people think.”
The updated version of the biography is due for release next week by publishers Penguin Random House and includes new chapters on Key’s final years as Prime Minister and his resignation.
I look forward to the two of us talking by phone soon. Bill English
It should have been one of the most congenial calls for the new commander in chief — a conversation with the leader of Australia, one of America’s staunchest allies, at the end of a triumphant week.
Instead, US President Donald Trump blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refugee agreement and boasted about the magnitude of his Electoral College win, according to senior US officials briefed on the Sunday exchange. Then, 25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.
Sky News Australia reporter Laura Jayes said that sources confirmed Trump “did hang up mid conversation” and “his tone was described as yelling”.
At one point Trump informed Turnbull that he had spoken to four other world leaders that day and that, “This was the worst call by far”.
Trump’s behaviour suggests that he is capable of subjecting world leaders, including close allies, to a version of the vitriol he frequently employs against political adversaries and news organisations in speeches and on Twitter.
“This is the worst deal ever,” Trump fumed as Turnbull attempted to confirm that the US would honour its pledge to take in 1250 refugees from a detention centre. Trump, who one day earlier had signed an executive order temporarily barring the admissions of refugees, complained that he was “going to get killed” politically and accused Australia of seeking to export the “next Boston bombers”.
Trump yesterday tweeted: “Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!” In Australia, Turnbull told reporters: “It’s better that these things — these conversations — are conducted can- didly, frankly, privately.” US officials said that Trump has behaved similarly in conversations with leaders of other countries. But his treatment of Turnbull was striking because of the tight bond between the US and Australia.
The characterisations provide insight into Trump’s temperament and approach to the diplomatic requirements of his job. He continues to employ both the uncompromising negotiating tactics he honed as a real estate developer and the bombastic style he exhibited as a reality television personality. The depictions of Trump’s calls are also at odds with sanitised White House accounts. A White House spokesman declined to comment. A senior Administration official acknowledged that the conversation with Turnbull had been hostile and charged, but emphasised that most of Trump’s calls with foreign leaders have been both productive and pleasant.
Trump also vented anger and touted his political accomplishments in a tense conversation with Mexican President Enrique Pen˜a Nieto, officials said. The two have sparred for months over Trump’s vow to force Mexico to pay for construction of a border wall between the two countries, a conflict that prompted Pen˜a Nieto to cancel a planned meet- ing with Trump. Trump told Pen˜a Nieto in last Saturday’s call, according to AP, which said it reviewed a transcript of part of the conversation, “You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it”.
Mexico denies that Trump made the threat.
Trump manages to work in references to his election accomplishments. US officials said that he used his calls with both Turnbull and Pen˜a Nieto to mention his election win or the size of the crowd at his inauguration.
One official said that it may be Trump’s way of “speaking about the mandate he has and why he has the backing for decisions he makes”. But Trump is also notoriously thinskinned and has used platforms including social-media accounts, meetings with lawmakers and even a speech at CIA headquarters to depict his victory as an achievement of historic proportions, rather than a narrow outcome in which his opponent, Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote.
The friction with Turnbull reflected Trump’s anger over being bound by an agreement reached by former President Barack Obama’s Administration to accept refugees from Australian detention sites even while Trump was issuing an executive order suspending such arrivals from elsewhere in the world. The issue centres on a population of roughly 2500 people who were diverted to facilities off that country’s coast at Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. “I don’t want these people,” Trump said. He repeatedly misstated the number of refugees called for in the agreement as 2000 rather than 1250, and told Turnbull that it was “my intention” to honour the agreement, a phrase designed to leave the US President wiggle room to back out of the deal in the future, according to a senior U.S. official.
Turnbull told Trump that to honour the agreement, the US would not have to accept all of the refugees but only to allow them each through the normal vetting procedures. At that, Trump vowed to subject each refugee to “extreme vetting,” the senior US official said.