“It’s time we’re going to be a little tough, folks,” President Donald Trump said Thursday on the heels of his latest pointed exchange with a foreign leader, a squabble with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over a refugee deal Trump branded as “dumb.”
The tiff over the agreement, to allow mostly Muslim refugees to resettle in the U.S, became the latest source of friction between Trump and a series of leaders rattled by the White House’s new no-holds-barred approach to diplomacy.
A recent call between Trump and Turnbull ended after less than 30 minutes, well earlier than scheduled, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity, although the official disputed reports that Trump hung up on the prime minister.
The Obama administration agreed to resettle refugees from among about 1,600 asylum-seekers, most of whom are on island camps on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Australia has refused to accept them and instead pays for them to be housed on the impoverished islands.
The White House suggested Thursday that the agreement would continue, with spokesman Sean Spicer saying any of the refugees who come to the United States would undergo “extreme vetting,” but he provided no details.
Later, chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon invited Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador, to the White House, expressing Trump’s “deep admiration” for the Australian people, an administration spokesperson said. And Sen. John McCain phoned Australia’s ambassador to affirm “unwavering support for the U.S.-Australia alliance.”
In the past few days, Trump:
• Put Iran “on notice” and hinted at retaliation unless its leaders stop testing ballistic missiles and supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen. “It is not for the first time that a naive person from the U.S. poses threats to Iran,” said Ali-Akbar Velayati, foreign adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, Velayati said: “The U.S. will be the final loser.”
Sanctions against Iran could be announced as soon as today, U.S. officials and others with knowledge of the decision said Thursday. Up to two dozen Iranian individuals, companies and possibly government agencies could be penalized, the source said.
• Told Mexico’s president that he would send U.S. troops to stop “bad hombres down there.” A spokesman later said Trump’s remark was intended as “lighthearted.”
• And, on Thursday, said he’s looking into “re-doing” the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he called a “catastrophe for our county.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s new top diplomats struck a more cordial tone:
• Rex Tillerson, in his first day as secretary of state, implicitly acknowledged in an address to staff that many U.S. diplomats oppose some of Trump’s positions. Without criticizing that, he called for unity.
“Honesty will undergird our foreign policy, and we’ll start by making it the basis of how we interact with each other,” Tillerson said. “We are human beings first.”
Though Tillerson himself lacks experience as a diplomat, he portrayed himself in his Senate confirmation hearing as a levelheaded tactician with foreign policy views within the Republican mainstream. He spent his first day at work meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
The former Exxon Mobil CEO offered an olive branch to hundreds of diplomats who signed a “dissent cable” challenging Trump’s order on immigration and refugees, affirming that “each of us is entitled to the expression of our political beliefs.” While noting the nation’s “hotly contested” election campaign, Tillerson stressed that “we cannot let out personal convictions overwhelm our ability to work as one team.”
• Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought to project the same sentiment internationally in South Korea on Thursday, in his first official trip abroad.
Mattis said the president’s message was “about the priority that we place on this alliance between our two nations,” seeking to reassure an ally that was unnerved by Trump the candidate when he said it should take on greater self-defense responsibility.
Trump’s in-their-faces approach may be jolting to some, but Trump himself shrugged off concerns with a smile.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast. “We have to be tough.”
Trump said the world is “in trouble” and other countries have been taking advantage of the United States, but his administration will “straighten it out.”
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