pafret Loc: Northeast

Someone Leaked Classified Transcripts Of Trump’s Phone Calls With Foreign Leaders
Chuck Ross Reporter
10:15 AM 08/03/2017

The Washington Post on Thursday published portions of classified transcripts of combative phone calls President Trump had earlier this year with the leaders of Mexico and Australia.

The transcripts portray acrimonious conversations between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, largely on the issues of immigration, border wall funding and refugees.
http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/GettyImages-632934730-e1486573908735.jpg
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 28: President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House. On Saturday, President Trump is making several phone calls with world leaders from Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Australia. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 28: President Donald Trump speaks on the phone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House. On Saturday, President Trump is making several phone calls with world leaders from Japan, Germany, Russia, France and Australia. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The release of the transcripts is likely to anger Trump for two reasons. First, the transcript of the phone call with Peña Nieto shows that Trump views construction of the border wall more as a political necessity than as a security issue. Trump has also fumed about sensitive leaks coming from his administration, which he sees as an attempt to undermine his presidency. Last week, Trump publicly criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not doing enough to find and punish the leakers.

There is no indication in the Post report of who leaked the call transcripts. But the newspaper notes that read-outs, which are compiled from notes taken during the phone calls, are often shared among White House staff and policymakers.

In his Jan. 27 call with Peña Nieto, Trump pressured the Mexican president to stop contradicting him about funding for the wall that Trump says he wants to build at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump suggested that both he and Peña Nieto should issue vague remarks about who will pay for the wall.
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U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto during the their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

“We should both say, ‘We will work it out.’ It will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, according to the classified transcript. “As opposed to you saying, ‘We will not pay,’ and me saying, ‘We will not pay.'”

Peña Nieto rebuffed Trump, saying that “my position has been and will continue to be very firm, saying that Mexico cannot pay for the wall.”

“But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that,” Trump responded.

Trump also indicated that his talk of the border wall was a political ploy.

Noting that construction of the wall had been a major campaign theme for two years, Trump called the wall “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”

Trump’s conversation with Turnbull was even more combative, the call transcript shows.

Trump and Turnbull disagreed over an agreement made by President Obama to accept refugees from Australian detention centers operating in Papua New Guinea.

The Obama administration had agreed to take in 1,250 refugees as part of a humanitarian aid deal with the UN. But Trump said he opposed the deal, and expressed concerns that some of the refugees would become terrorists down the road.

“This is going to k**l me,” Trump told Turnbull, according to The Post. “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people,” he added, inflating the number of refugees being allowed into the U.S.

“I h**e taking these people,” Trump said later in the 24-minute conversation. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.”

Turnbull attempted to appeal to Trump’s experience as a businessman.

“There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull told Trump. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.”

Trump said that he was concerned that one of the refugees would “become the Boston bomber in five years.”

“I think it is a horrible deal, a d********g deal that I would have never made,” Trump added. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.”

Turnbull attempted to salvage the conversation, but Trump ended the call in frustration.

E

These kind of leaks are about the worst possible. It shackles our President in conversations with leaders of the world. And it will cause harm way beyond this president. These leakers need to be found using every possible means and then prosecuted to the full extent of the law and sentenced to the maximum penalty available.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

President Trump seems to be enveloped in a swamp/quagmire of his own doing.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Mueller should look into this too

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

My guess is that there will be little Mueller doesn't look into.

Richard Rowland

I don't give a s**t what one's particular political view is, the release of the president's phone conversation is about as low as it can get. Has any other elected president ever been subjected to this type of an egregious act? I hope they find the low life that leaked the transcripts. No president, even those we didn't v**e for, should be subjected to this type of activity.

A normal person would feel a sense of ethical injustice has taken place when listening in on someone's private phone conversation. Listening to the news broadcasting to the world our president's private phone conversations has, in my view, an ethical taint of shamefulness to our America. Leaking the transcripts was as low as looking through a peephole in the wall of America's bathrooms.

Gatsby

I would start with lie detector examinations for all W.H. staff, ASAP.

Morgan

What's been going on is better than a Shakespearian play, the closer Mueller gets, the more Trump reacts, the more Trump reacts against Mueller the tighter Mueller's grip, all we have to do is sit back and watch the show...pass the popcorn...this should be fun

pafret Loc: Northeast

In addition to the ethical injustice it is an act of treason. Trump wasn't talking to his Mistress, he was discussing affairs of the nation with other heads of nations and he was about our nations business. Who hasn't ground their teeth about Obama's stupidity in accepting Australia's criminal invaders. I would like them picked up and dumped back in their own country, not here.

This is a criminal act which should unleash all of the hounds and I would like to see the Post people picked up and waterboarded until they give up the names. They too participated in treasonous acts. Gitmo is still operational, round up the Post people and give them a lengthy tour.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

I'm sure Trump begging the foreign leaders not to get him into trouble with the t***h, has endeared him to his supporters - and emboldened his detractors who are now saying " hah! We told you so!".

pafret Loc: Northeast

Are you a child? Is it really a surprise that a politician says one thing publicly and totally another in private. The accusation is that Trump is unstable and about to precipitate conflicts with every other nation. They are all liars and the proof of the pudding is yet to come; if we are better off in three years then he was a success if not maybe he will get forur more to try or maybe he will be dumped.

After Obama screwed the pooch and agreed to take thoise invaders there is little Trump can do without alienating an ally. Obama should have told the Aussies to send them back but that wouldn't contribute to our destruction.

Nickolai

We can see that the fat boy with the doo is mentally unstable and therefore dangerous as hell he thinks he is a bull and America is a China cabinet

samtheyank

Ever who the person is who leaked that information should be found and thrown in jail. I have no doubt it is an Obama sympathizer.

Homestead

Oh yes, Obama handled these situations much better.

He just gave the foreign leaders wh**ever they wanted and apologized for not giving in faster, but, no one accused him of being in a quagmire.

I guess in a modern world, door mats are respected.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Deflect much Think "two wrongs don't make a right."