Pali students respond to President Trump’s clashes with foreign leaders

Protests+at+LAX+erupted+following+the+signing+of+the+immigration+ban.

Rachael Smuts

Protests at LAX erupted following the signing of the immigration ban.

The close diplomatic ties between the United States and Australia might be threatened after a hot-headed phone call between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull according to published reports. The conversation, which took place on Saturday, Jan. 28 and lasted only 25 minutes, took a turn for the worse when Prime Minister Turnbull inquired whether Trump would fulfill the previous administration’s commitment to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center. At the mention of this agreement, President Trump purportedly hung up the phone, cutting the call short.

The details of the discussion between the two leaders were released by a senior administration official who chose to remain anonymous, as he was not authorized to share information about the diplomatic talks, The New York Times reported.

President Trump and Prime Minister Turnbull came away from the call with extraordinarily different understandings of the conversation that transpired, as evidenced by each leader’s subsequent actions. On the night of Wednesday, Feb. 1, the president took to Twitter to express his discontent with Turnbull’s insinuation that the United States ought to honor its agreement to accept refugees, decided under the administration of former President Obama.

“Do you believe it?” he wrote on his @realDonaldTrump account. “The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”

Meanwhile, at a press briefing on Thursday, Feb. 2, Turnbull suggested that in spite of the call’s abrupt ending, President Trump confirmed he would follow through with the agreement.

When asked about Trump’s unorthodox dealings with Prime Minister Turnbull, Pali sophomore Nilay Desai had lots to say. “He literally bragged about his electoral win which wasn’t impressive because he still lost the popular vote,” Desai said. “…he brought up Syria and then he hung up.”

As he starts his fourth week in office, the number of countries that President Trump has insulted, both directly and indirectly, has reached double digits. From inflammatory tweets to aggressive policies, President Trump is setting a new foreign policy precedent, one that will continue to unfold in the weeks, months and years to come.