Did Donald Trump Piss Off Two of Our Biggest Allies?

Donald Trump reportedly threatened to invade Mexico and insulted the Australian prime minister within the span of one week.

Donald Trump speaks before the swearing in of Rex Tillerson
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Donald Trump speaks before the swearing-in of Rex Tillerson

Donald Trump speaks before the swearing in of Rex Tillerson

Donald Trump has reportedly insulted two of the country’s biggest allies. And he’s only been president for 12 days.

According to the Associated Press, Trump had placed a call to Mexican President Enrique Pena Niéto to “patch things up” following a public dispute over the proposed border wall; however, it appears the conversation was far from civil.

During the phone call, Trump had reportedly threatened to invade Mexico if its military didn’t properly handle the "bad hombres down there”: “You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared,” Trump said to Pena Niéto, according to a portion of the transcript obtained by the AP. “Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”

The transcript immediately raised concerns about Trump’s approach when dealing with foreign leaders; however, the White House has denied the report.

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Though the White House has yet to release an official statement, the Mexican Foreign Relations Department told the AP, "The negative statements you refer to did not occur during said telephone call. On the contrary, the tone was constructive."

CNN claimed that the AP's version of the call came from "an official internal readout," rather than a word-for-word transcript. Instead, CNN reported, Trump actually said, "You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with. We are willing to help with that big-league, but they have be knocked out and you have not done a good job knocking them out."

Though Trump’s conversation with the Mexican president may have gone better than expected—at least according to the governments involved—his phone call with the Australian Prime Minister much rockier, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the Saturday call.

Trump reportedly told Malcolm Turnbull that an already-agreed-on US-Australia refugee resettlement agreement was “the worst deal ever,” and claimed Australia was looking to export the “next Boston bombers.” Officials told the Washington Post the president also bragged about his electoral college win before abruptly ending the call about a half hour early.

Turnbull has neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

“I'm not going to comment on a conversation between myself and the President of the United States other than what we have said publicly," he said during a press conference Thursday. “You can surely understand the reasons for that. I appreciate your interest, but it's better that these things—these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately. If you see reports of them, I'm not going to add to them.”

Late Wednesday night, Trump tweeted about the refugee resettlement deal, calling it "dumb" and saying he would "study" it. He also referred to the refugees as "illegal immigrants."

 

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