Donald Trump didn’t know U.S.-Australia deal existed until Prime Minister told him about it
Earlier today, senior U.S. officials leaked the details of Donald Trump’s first diplomatic phone call with the Prime Minister of Australia, a close ally of the United States. Suffice it so that call went poorly, with Trump yelling at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, threatening him, and then hanging up on him. And now Trump himself just admitted why became so enraged during that phone call: he had no idea that a widely publicized arrangement between the U.S. and Australia even existed until Turnbull told him about it.
As we reported earlier, Donald Trump lost his cool and became unglued over the existing agreement in which the United States was to take in a fixed number of refugees who are currently in Australia. But it was what Trump tweeted afterward which may be the most disconcerting aspect of the fiasco.
“Do you believe it,” Trump tweeted just a few moments ago. “The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!” In so doing, Trump admitted that he had no idea this deal existed until he learned about it from Turnbull during the phone call.
Not only has the refugee deal been long reported on by U.S. media, it’s also the kind of thing that Donald Trump or his White House senior advisors should and could have researched before getting on the phone with the Prime Minister of Australia. It’s almost unfathomable that Trump got on the phone with the leader of Australia and had no idea about a key existing arrangement between his own nation and Australia. And yet that’s what happened today.
No wonder Trump lost his cool — he realized once again during that phone call that he’s woefully in over his head in the role of president, and that doing the job well requires the kind of hard work and constant studying and research that he’s just not willing to do. It begs the question of how much longer before Trump resigns.
Impeach Trump Now • Contribute to Palmer Report
