Australian PM Turnbull insists Trump relationship ‘warm’ despite ‘horrible’ transcripts

Australia’s prime minister insisted on Friday that his relationship with President Donald Trump was “warm”, despite transcripts of a heated conversation in which the leaders sparred over a refugee deal.

The January phone call between Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was widely reported at the time. But the transcripts published on Friday by The Washington Post offered new details into the conversation, which focused on an Obama-era refugee deal under which the United States will take up to 1,250 refugees that Australia houses in detention camps on the Pacific island nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

According to the transcript, Trump told Turnbull the agreement was “stupid”, “disgusting” and “horrible”, adding: “This deal will make me look terrible ... I am going to get killed on this thing.”

“It was a courteous, frank conversation as President Trump said,” Turnbull told reporters in the west Australian town of Broome when asked about the transcripts. “We’re both adults ... I stand up for Australia’s interests, he stands up for America’s interests. We have a warm relationship.”

Trump originally said reports characterising the conversation as testy were “fake news” made up by the media, and insisted the call had been civil. Trump repeated his assertion that the reports were “fake news” when he and Turnbull met in New York in May, to which Turnbull responded: “Yes, that’s exactly right.”