MALCOLM Turnbull thought he could outsmart Donald Trump and trap him into taking 1250 of our boat people.
Huge mistake, and now he’s been humiliated.
There is no surprise that an angry Trump attacked Turnbull in their call at the weekend and hung up halfway through, after just 25 minutes.
What did Turnbull expect?
This political disaster was always on the cards from the moment Turnbull announced, on November 13 last year, that he’d signed a deal with then US president Barack Obama to take our boat people detained on Nauru and Manus Island.
That was very dumb because just five days earlier Trump had been unexpectedly elected the next president, having campaigned hard against exactly this kind of thing.
Trump had made it perfectly clear that he was against taking in alleged refugees from jihadist countries without at least “extreme vetting”. Turnbull knew this. In fact, he’d planned to announce his Obama arrangement early this year, but after Trump’s win rushed it forward in an apparent attempt to present Trump with a fait accompli — a done-deal the new President would not dare undo.
Trump had no choice but to back off. The Post had reported him accusing Turnbull of wanting to send him more “Boston bombers”, and he could hardly now tell the American voters he was happy to take them.
So Trump instead tweeted: “Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”
Turnbull has a very nervous wait now to see if his boat people “solution” will survive. He’s also learned a very hard lesson: don’t try messing with Trump.
Trump had no choice but to back off. The Post had reported him accusing Turnbull of wanting to send him more “Boston bombers”, and he could hardly now tell the American voters he was happy to take them.
So Trump instead tweeted: “Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!”
Turnbull has a very nervous wait now to see if his boat people “solution” will survive. He’s also learned a very hard lesson: don’t try messing with Trump.
