WASHINGTON \u2014 A phone call between President Trump and the Australian prime minister is threatening to develop into a diplomatic rift between two stalwart allies after the two men exchanged harsh words over refugee policy, and Mr. Trump abruptly ended the call.
The phone call last Saturday between Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull turned contentious after the Australian leader pressed the president to honor an agreement to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center.
Late Wednesday night, Mr. Trump reiterated his anger over the agreement on Twitter. He called the agreement a \u201cdumb deal\u201d and blamed the Obama administration for accepting it but then said that he would \u201cstudy\u201d it. The tweet was posted after The Washington Post reported details of the phone call.
The leaders of the two allies did not seem to agree on the outcome of the conversation. Mr. Trump\u2019s tweet suggested the agreement could be at risk while Mr. Turnbull said that, despite the bluntness of the discussion, the United States had committed to upholding the arrangement.
The flare-up \u2014 and conflicting characterizations of the call from Mr. Trump and Mr. Turnbull \u2014 threatened to do lasting damage to relations between the two countries and could drive Canberra closer to China, which has a robust trading relationship with Australia and is competing with Washington to become the dominant force in the Asia-Pacific region.
A senior Trump administration official said the president told Mr. Turnbull on Saturday that the refugees could include the \u201cnext Boston bombers.\u201d He also said he was \u201cgoing to get killed\u201d politically by the deal, given that the day before he signed an executive order to stem the refugee flow into the United States and refuse visas for all citizens from seven Muslim countries.
The Trump administration official said the call was shorter than planned, and ended abruptly after Mr. Turnbull told the president it was necessary for the refuges to be accepted.
The details of the call were confirmed by a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the exchange who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the diplomatic talks.
Mr. Turnbull, speaking Thursday at a press briefing in Australia\u2019s southern state of Victoria, refused to comment at length on the telephone call, or say whether it had ended sooner than expected. But he did acknowledge that it had been candid.
\u201cI\u2019ve seen that report,\u201d Mr. Turnbull said of the Washington Post account , \u201cand I\u2019m not going to comment on the conversation, other than to say that in the course of the conversation, as you know and as was confirmed by the president\u2019s official spokesman in the White House, the president assured me that he would continue with, honor the agreement we entered into with the Obama administration with respect to refugee resettlement.\u201d
Pressed about Mr. Trump\u2019s tone, and whether the president ended the call by hanging up, Mr. Turnbull refused to comment. \u201cIt\u2019s better that these things, these conversations are conducted candidly, frankly, privately,\u201d he said.
Mr. Turnbull again stated that Australia\u2019s relationship with the United States remained robust, but if the deal to resettle the refugees falls through, Canberra will be left with a seemingly intractable political problem at home.
The Australian government has a policy that bars any refugees that attempted to arrive by boat from ever setting foot in the country. The majority of the refugees being held on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus are from Iran and Iraq. Both are Muslim-majority nations that are among the seven countries \u2014 including Libya, Somalia , Sudan, Syria and Yemen \u2014 whose citizens are barred from entering the United States for at least 90 days under an executive order signed by Mr. Trump last week.
\u201cI can assure you the relationship is very strong,\u201d Mr. Turnbull said. \u201cThe fact that we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance.\u201d
\u201cBut as Australians know me very well \u2014 I stand up for Australia in every forum \u2014 public or private.\u201d
Bill Shorten, the leader of Australia\u2019s opposition Labor party, said there were two versions of the conversation between Mr. Turnbull and Mr. Trump over the refugee deal, and Mr. Turnbull should be \u201cstraight with the Australian people.\u201d
Mr. Turnbull \u201cmade it clear he had a constructive discussion\u201d over the refugee deal, Mr. Shorten said. \u201cBut now it appears another, different version of the same conversation has emerged.\u201d
Kim Beazley, a former Australian ambassador to the United States who served in Washington during much of the Obama administration, said the impact of the flareup would be \u201cminimal\u201d if the refugee deal remained in force. But he added, \u201cIf the tonality is true you wouldn\u2019t want to have too many conversations like that.\u201d
It was not the only awkward call last week between Mr. Trump and a world leader. Earlier, on Friday, Mr. Trump joked to President Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto of Mexico that he would deploy troops to Mexico if the Mexican government failed to control \u201cbad hombres down there.\u201d
On Wednesday night, the senior Trump administration official said the president\u2019s comments to Pe\u00f1a Nieto were made in jest and the comments reflected Mr. Trump\u2019s standing offer to help Mexico battle drug gangs and control boarder crossings. The official said the conversation between the two presidents was friendly, and Pe\u00f1a Nieto did not appear to be offended.
The Mexican government issued a statement denying the A. P. report and said it did not \u201ccorrespond to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

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