The transcripts of President Donald Trump’s confidential conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia in January have been leaked to the press by establishment insiders.
But instead of making Trump look bad, the conversations instead shows how the president strongly negotiated with the leaders over the politics of the border wall and refugee policy — and refused to back down.
The art of the deal.
The president’s exchanges with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just a week after the inauguration were widely reported upon at the time.
But transcripts published Friday, leaked by an insider to The Washington Post, offer new detail on the new president’s blunt exchanges with the U.S. allies.
Two Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bob Corker of Tennessee, said the release of the transcripts is a disservice to Trump.. and was an illegal act.
In his conversation with Pena Nieto, Trump urges the Mexican president to stop saying his country won’t pay for the wall along the southern U.S. border. The two agree to stop talking about the subject in public.
In the Turnbull conversation, the two leaders discuss a 2016 refugee deal between their nations, under which the Obama administration agreed to accept asylum seekers who had been trying to get to Australia.
Turnbull tried to insist to Trump that the deal is still on. Trump countered that the deal would let in potential terrorist — and was not happening, sending Turnbull into a frenzy.
The transcripts show that the tone of their conversation — though tense — was clearly blown out of proportion by the mainstream media when it was first reported upon.
At the time, Trump tweeted —
Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017
The Associated Press contributed to this article