Australia and US work to repair relationship after early Trump thrashing
WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump was still settling into the Oval Office early last year when he blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the phone for what the president called the "worst deal ever."
At issue was then-President Barack Obama's agreement to accept about 1,250 economic refugees who had fled to Australia, mostly from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Taking them, Trump argued, would contradict his vow to ban people arriving from a series of Muslim-majority countries, and to suspend the U.S. intake of refugees.
"I look like a dope," Trump told Turnbull, according to a transcript of the contentious call that was leaked to The Washington Post in August. "This is going to kill me. I am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. ... It makes me look so bad, and I have only been here a week."
With Turnbull scheduled to visit the White House on Friday, the Trump administration has accepted up to 170 of the economic refugees, and others are under consideration, according to the State Department. Twenty-two arrived in Los Angeles last week, according to the Refugee Action Coalition, based in Sydney.
In exchange, Australia has agreed to take a number of immigrants fleeing violent countries such as El Salvador and Honduras.
The long-delayed refugee swap has complicated U.S. ties with Australia, long one of America's staunchest allies, and both countries are eager to get relations back on an even keel.
_Tribune Washington Bureau
