U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to raise questions as to whether he would honor an accord between the U.S. and Australian governments on refugee resettlement late Wednesday, despite Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s insistence earlier this week that the deal was still on.
Writing on Twitter late Wednesday night, Trump said, “The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!” That statement was followed by a report in the Washington Post recounting a testy exchange between the two leaders that the U.S. president ended after just 25 minutes.
On Tuesday, Turnbull had told media that Trump agreed to honor the agreement during their phone call on Sunday.
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About the author
Lisa Cornishlisa_cornish
Lisa Cornish is a former Devex Senior Reporter based in Canberra, where she focuses on the Australian aid community. Lisa has worked with News Corp Australia as a data journalist and has been published throughout Australia in the Daily Telegraph in Melbourne, Herald Sun in Melbourne, Courier-Mail in Brisbane, and online through news.com.au. Lisa additionally consults with Australian government providing data analytics, reporting and visualization services.