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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer lashed out at the Obama-administration for the move, saying the new president was “unbelievably disappointed” to have inherited the deal. Later asked if the deal would continue, Trump however said, “We’ll see what happens.”
Australian Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull though, had yesterday said that Trump had committed to the agreement to accept 1,250 refugees who are lodged in offshore detention centres on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
The US President had abruptly ended his now-infamous phone call to Turnbull after their disagreement on the issue reportedly left him unhappy. True to character, he then took to Twitter to describe the agreement as a “dumb deal”.
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“We had one instance in Australia, I have a lot of respect for Australia, I love Australia as a country but we had a problem where for whatever reason President Obama said that they were going to take probably well over 1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons and they were going to bring them and take them into this country and I just said ‘why?’,” he said. “‘Why are we doing this? What’s the purpose?’ So we’ll see what happens,” the US President said.
“We have some wonderful allies but we’re going to keep it that way but we have to be treated fairly also. We have to be treated fairly,” Trump said. He also lamented that a “lot of countries” were “really terribly” taking advantage of the US. At his press conference yesterday, Spicer said Trump “had a very cordial conversation” with the Australian Prime Minister.
“The President is unbelievably disappointed in the previous administration’s deal that was made and how poorly it was crafted and the threat it put on US national security,” Spicer.
“He (Trump) has tremendous respect for the PM and the Australian people and has agreed to continue to review that deal and to ensure that as part of the deal, was always part of it, that we would go through a very, very extreme vetting process to ensure that every single person that is being offered up is coming here with peaceful intentions and poses no threat to the United States,” he said.
“So he has ensured that while he has respect for the Australian people and respect for PM Turnbull, that we do not pose a threat to the US, that the deal that he was cut by the last administration is something that he is extremely, extremely upset with. He does not like it,” Spicer said.
“But out of respect for him, he’s going to allow that process to continue to study, and allow to move forward under the conditions that have been set that there will be extreme vetting on every single one of those individuals,” the White House Press Secretary said.
Spicer said the President’s goal is to make sure that every single one of those people, in accordance with the deal, and as discussed in the telephone conversation with the Australian Prime Minister, is subject to extreme vetting.
“But I cannot underscore how disappointed he was in the deal that was made and how he thought it was just a horrible deal that was offered up by the United States by the previous administration,” Spicer said in response to a question.
Republican Senator John McCain meanwhile, said he called the Australian Ambassador to the US to calm the situation. “I called Australia’s Ambassador to the United States this morning to express my unwavering support for the US-Australia alliance. I asked Ambassador Hockey to convey to the people of Australia that their American brothers and sisters value our historic alliance, honor the sacrifice of the Australians who have served and are serving by our side, and remain committed to the safer, freer, and better world that Australia does far more than its fair share to protect and promote,” McCain said.