US president Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull are reported to have had a frosty conversation on Wednesday over a deal made during the Obama administration that would see over 1,000 refugees resettled in United States.
A deal struck with Australia during Barack Obama’s time in the White House allowed for the resettlement of approximately 1,250 asylum seekers to Australia in the United States after Australia refused to accept them. They are currently being held in detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Since Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the entry of refugees and residents of seven Muslim countries last Friday, Australia has been seeking confirmation that the deal struck during the Obama administration would go ahead, leading to the tetchy conversation between Trump and Turnbull yesterday.
According to reports on Australian television, Trump was believed to have been “yelling” down the phone at Turnbull and even hung up mid-conversation, although Turnbull later told a radio station in Sydney that this was not the case.
#BREAKING Sky News sources say Donald Trump was 'yelling' during his phone conversation with PM Turnbull and hung up after 25 minutes pic.twitter.com/xqrebcOv84
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 2, 2017
Trump later tweeted the following message.
Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
According to the BBC, as part of the original deal, agreed in November, the refugees would be assessed by US authorities before deciding how many of them would be resettled in the country in an agreement to be administered by the United Nations refugee agency.
