Trump Barks at Australia, Rolls Over for Russia

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This just in — the White House announced it would honor a deal made with Australia to take in 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center. However, as he made this announcement Official White House Apologist Sean Spicer repeatedly mispronounced Prime Minister Turnbull’s name as “Trunbull.”

The backstory: You probably heard that yesterday Donald Trump managed to further embarrass the United States by insulting, and then hanging up on, the Prime Minister of Australia. Trump later doubled down on his “get tough with the Aussies” strategy. The Sydney Morning Herald reports,

President Donald Trump has defended his “tough” approach to speaking with foreign leaders in his first public remarks since details of his tense phone conversation with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull were revealed, even as criticism mounted over the president’s treatment of a stalwart US ally.

One senior Republican colleague, senator John McCain, even took the step of calling the Australian ambassador to reaffirm the alliance on Thursday.

Speaking at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Mr Trump strayed from his prepared remarks several times and addressed the intense media coverage of his phone call with Mr Turnbull – which turned sour during a discussion over an Obama-era agreement to take 1250 refugees from Australia’s offshore detention camps – as well as an equally controversial conversation with the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.

“When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it,” Mr Trump said. “Just don’t worry about it. They’re tough. We have to be tough.”

Well, no, we don’t have to be tough. We can be nice sometimes, you know, especially with leaders of countries we’ve long had good relationships with and who do us favors sometimes.

Regarding the Mexican President — There was a report from the Associated Press that Trump also had called President Enrique Pena Nieto and threatened to invade Mexico, but Mexico is denying this is true. But then, the White House today said that yes, Trump did say something like that, but he was joking.

Anyway, Trump said we have to get tough with Australia. On the other hand, it seems Russia is testing the U.S. with new military aggressions in the Ukraine, and in that situation Trump is not being tough at all.

The Trump administration is facing its first major test on the international stage as volleys of Russian artillery and rockets continue to pound Ukrainian forces in the country’s contested east, reigniting the frozen conflict and killing about a dozen Ukrainian soldiers since Sunday.

The barrages, along with renewed pushes by Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces near the government-held industrial town of Avdiyivka, spiked dramatically on Sunday. The day before, Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held their first phone call, reportedly talking about forming a new alliance against the Islamic State and working together on a range of other issues.

Trump possibly assumes this isn’t actually happening.

Poor John McCain is once again being called on to call for a return to the good old days when things were normal.

“That this surge of attacks began the day after he talked with you by phone is a clear indication that Vladimir Putin is moving quickly to test you as commander in chief. America’s response will have lasting consequences,” McCain said in a letter to Trump released by his office.

Washington has supplied aid to Ukraine including drones, radar, first-aid kits, night vision and communications gear as part Democratic President Barack Obama’s strategy of providing non-lethal military assistance while focusing on sanctions and diplomacy to end the war.

McCain urged Trump to use his authority under an existing defense policy law to provide lethal assistance to Ukraine.

“Vladimir Putin’s violent campaign to destabilize and dismember the sovereign nation of Ukraine will not stop unless and until he meets a strong and determined response,” McCain wrote.

Will Trump “get tough” with Putin? Are you joking?

Back to the Sydney Morning Herald — quoting Dear Leader, before he apparently caved under threat of Aussie derision, or something:

“It’s time we’re going to be a little tough folks. We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It’s not going to happen anymore. It’s not going to happen anymore.”

The call with Mr Turnbull and a subsequent tweet from the president condemning the “dumb deal” on refugees was greeted with more confusion and condemnation in the US on Thursday.

Senator McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate who has clashed with Mr Trump on issues of foreign policy before, described the president’s treatment of Australia as “harmful.”

“It was an unnecessary and frankly harmful open dispute over an issue which is not nearly as important as United States-Australian cooperation and working together, including training of our marines in Australia and other areas of military cooperation and intelligence,” he said during a doorstop interview in Washington DC.

WaPo says this is what happened with the phone call:

President Trump blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refu­gee agreement and boasted about the magnitude of his electoral college win, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the Saturday exchange. Then, 25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.

At one point, Trump informed Turnbull that he had spoken with four other world leaders that day — including Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — and that “this was the worst call by far.”

Did Donnie and Vlad talk about the Ukraine, I wonder?

21 thoughts on “Trump Barks at Australia, Rolls Over for Russia”

  1. At one point, Trump informed Turnbull that he had spoken with four other world leaders that day — including Russian President Vladi­mir Putin — and that “this was the worst call by far.”

    After all, it’s all about Donnie.

  2. POP QUIZ…For 5 bonus points fill in the blank with the correct answer.

    Donald Trump is a big bag of __________!

  3. If our new messiah cannot play to the Aussies, then what?  He wants (other than Putin) to be a player.  Andrea Markel is not playing.  The new Canada guy is not playing, Mexico is less than on board.  China, number two in world economy and growing is (I have not the literary skill to fill in the words needed) and I am just so hopelessly caught up in the horrific distress, the as you coined maladministration.  That China will leapfrog is obvious.  I have no crystal ball, but the chances that the Messiah will yield this country to a “Christian”  theocracy and white supremacy is nil.  I understand that is their plan.  Failure will be on our bill not theirs.  Hot damn, I always wanted to play a little survivor game in my lifetime.  It is all in the moment and in the journey. We must all find a quench of thirst from the empty cup and learn to find fulfillment in distress and failure.  

  4. To answer Swami’s Pop Quiz: narcissistic bag of shit and he’ll never rise above that status

    We will be in a shooting war before the end of the year. Hie has already killed a SEAL and women and children. Perhaps, the youth of this country will learn very well what kind of a leader they DON’T want as they will suffer the most under this Idiot-in-Chief.

  5. So a handful of phone calls gets him fatigued and causes him to melt down? We are screwed.

  6. Bonnie.. You’ve been awarded 10 bonus points for such a comprehensive answer. How did you know?
    I kinda agree with your statement about us being in a war with Iran before the end of the year. After hearing what’s coming out of Trump’s mouth and that of his idiot National Security Advisor Flynn it certainly sounds like they are of the belief that military might will bring the Iranians into subjection of Donald Trump’s will. Trump is already setting the stage for confrontation where there is no room maneuver without somebody losing face. You can be sure the Iranians aren’t going to bow to any threats. With his tough guy rhetoric he’s boxing himself into a situation where his massive ego will take a big blow if he doesn’t hold true to his threats. If it comes down to protecting his ego or spending American servicemens lives, then say goodbye to a lot of our young men and women. in uniform.
    It’s basic child rearing..Don’t make threat you can’t or won’t follow through on. The best way to give away your power and authority is to make idle threats.

  7. ‘Man-child Running the Promised Land.’

    Saturday, the Fourth of February,2017, will mark exactly 240 years and 7 months since the Declaration of Independence was signed.
    That document and the US Constitution, were designed to be the opposite of walls.
    They are doors and windows of asylum, freedom and liberty (unless you were black and from Africa, or a Native American) that let the world look in at a better way of doing things, and places where they could enter, if/when the wanted or needed to; and where we could look out, and see how little some parts of the world had changed since the 18th Century – with religious/tribal/ethnic/political/gender suppression, battles and wars.

    And then along came Donald J(ackass) t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin.
    And while he talks of building a wall, the country it’s meant to protect, is starting to seriously fall apart.

    I’d go on and elaborate, but I’m tired, because my Mom’s in the hospital again, and I’m exhausted with worry.
    And because you’re probably tired, too.
    Let’s get some rest, because the ‘morrow will bring new atrocities.
    Oy…………

  10. I seem to remember a guy named Trump who railed at some guy named Obama because he failed to treat our allies with proper deference… IOKIYAR, I guess.

  13. What the hell is going on with these people?

    Sean Spicer is making up Iranian attacks against US navy vessels (until a reported reminded him it was a Saudi ship that was attacked by rebels from Yemen) and Kelly Ann what’s-her-name making up a fictitious Bowling Green, Ky, massacre – that just didn’t happen at all – It’s like they’re not even trying to think of lies good enough that might be dependable. It’s so painful to watch that it makes me almost miss Karl Rove for kryst’s sake.
    Can they really be this incompetent or are they playing us?

  16. Not relevant to the subject at hand, but…I’m having flashbacks of the 60’s while trying analyse the sickness that inhabits Trump’s spirit regarding the immigration ban. And this popped into my mind. Thought I should share.
    When the power of love overcomes the love for power, then, and only then, will there be peace.

    Also regarding his slobbering at the National Prayer meeting, or whatever they call it. You know, the one where they all fall on their faces and exalt Trump while patting themselves on the back for being so godly. I’m surprised that for all their claims of having great faith that nobody pointed out that fear is the absence of faith. And all that Trump does is peddle fear!

  17. Others, here Krugman, provide what I have not the literary skills to do. 

    “The most likely flash point seemed to be China, the subject of much Trumpist tough talk, where disputes over islands in the South China Sea could easily turn into shooting incidents.
    But the war with China will, it seems, have to wait. First comes Australia. And Mexico. And Iran. And the European Union. (But never Russia.)”    

    “And while there may be an element of cynical calculation in some of the administration’s crisismongering, this is looking less and less like a political strategy and more and more like a psychological syndrome.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/opinion/donald-the-menace.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

  18. The difference is ASIO doesn’t have any videos of Trump being peed on in hotel rooms in Sydney.

  19. Once again, the ACLU takes its place on the front lines of a liberal resistance

    The ACLU’s membership has doubled to more than 1 million people in the months since Trump’s election, when the organization issued a defiant vow on its website and over social media: “We’ll see you in court.”

    …Subscriptions to mainstream news publications and nonprofit investigative news outlets such as ProPublica and the Marshall Project have soared since the election; so have donations to left-leaning nonprofits like the Sierra Club and Planned Parenthood.

    …[executive director] Romero says his strategy is to block any legal overreaches by the new administration in court and to rally mass public support.

    “If you can ball up the machinery of the Trump administration and rob them of momentum in the way we did last weekend, we make it harder for them to go to the next thing on their to-do list,” Romero said in an interview.

  20. I see the courts have put the kibosh on Donnie’s immigration ban.. He should take a lesson on the tortoise and the hare. He was a little too quick out of the starting gate in a desire to exercise his new found power…and he blew it. What a dick head!
    I’d like to call attention to my 1:12 comment above. It could be very beneficial to any students who might be studying in a career field pertaining to psychology, psychiatry or any other related treatment of mental health issues.
    Take a minute or two to ponder what he is saying… And see if you can indentify his mental health issue.
    “The “world” is in trouble, but we’re going to straighten it out, OK? That’s what I do – I fix things.”

    Note how he transitions from plural (we) to singular (I)..Does that mean he has company in his head? Legion Trump? Sybil? Can we speak to John Miller?

  21. I thought he was referring to that other definition of “fix,” the one that causes anxiety in Fido every time he enters a car…

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