Politics

Trump defends himself against “harmful” act against Australia

Feb 03, 2017

The combination of how US President Donald Trump is speaking to foreign leaders and how he lashes out on the social media platform Twitter is starting to ruffle a lot of feathers. Many from Trump’s own party are now apologising for his actions.

The fireworks from “that phone call” between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and President Trump doesn’t seem like it’s going to die down anytime soon. Many experts and politicians from both sides are speaking out about it.

Republican Senator John McCain, whom President Trump offended during the election for mocking his POW status, apologise to Australia telling reporters, “It was an unnecessary and frankly harmful open dispute over an issue which is not nearly as important as United States-Australian cooperation and working together, including training of our marines in Australia and other areas of military cooperation and intelligence”. Mr McCain also spoke to the Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey saying, “I asked Ambassador Hockey to convey to the people of Australia that their American brothers and sisters value our historic alliance, honour 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”.

Fellow Republican Senator Lindsay Graham also made his feelings felt when asked about President Trump tweeting about the “dumb deal” with Australia saying, “I wish he would sleep more and tweet less… there’s probably better ways to handle this.”

President Trump spoke about it during a National Prayer Breakfast telling those in attendance, “When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it”. He added, “Just don’t worry about it. They’re tough. We have to be tough.”

“It’s time we’re going to be a little tough folks. We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It’s not going to happen anymore. It’s not going to happen anymore.”

The new President then turned his attention to what he wanted to pray for his former television show The Apprentice. A show he hosted for a long time and still produces, he took time from more pressing issues to say, “The ratings went right down the tubes. It’s been a total disaster”. He added, “I want to just pray for Arnold, if we can, for those ratings.” This is referring to the new host and former Governer of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Mr Schwarzenegger fired back in a video saying, “”You take over TV, because you’re such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job. Then people can finally sleep comfortably again.”