Australia-US ties hit new low after reported acrimonious Trump call

US President Trump, with National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and senior advisor Steve Bannon, speaks by phone with Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. [Photo/Agencies]

US ties with ally Australia were strained on Thursday over a reported acrimonious phone call between their two leaders and US President Donald Trump's assertion that an existing refugee swap deal was "dumb."

Trump described the resettlement plan as "the worst deal ever," the Washington Post reported, and accused Australia of trying to export the "next Boston bombers."

The call had been scheduled to last an hour but Trump cut it short after 25 minutes when Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull tried to turn to subjects such as Syria, according to the newspaper.

The apparent breakdown between Washington and Canberra that has developed over the resettlement deal could have serious repercussions. Australia and the United States are among the five nations that make up the Five Eyes group, the world's leading intelligence-sharing network.

Turnbull told reporters he was surprised and disappointed that details of the call with Trump had been leaked but gave few particulars other than to deny reports Trump had hung up on him.

“As far as the call is concerned, the report that the president hung up is not correct. The call ended courteously. And as far as the nature of the discussion, it was very frank and forthright," he told a Sydney radio station on Thursday.

"I make Australia’s case as powerfully and persuasively as I can, wherever I am," he said.

Turnbull declined to confirm the Post report that Trump, who has spoken to world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, had angrily told the Australian leader that the call was "the worst so far."

Trump, attending a national prayer breakfast in Washington on Thursday, said the United States was being taken advantage of and that he was having "tough phone calls" as he addressed issues. Trump did not name Australia or its leader by name.

"We're taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually. It's not going to happen anymore," he said, without naming any country.

Political analysts said such acrimony was unprecedented, surpassing even the difficult relations between former US President Richard Nixon and then-Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who withdrew the country's troops during the Vietnam War.

"Even that was always done in the language of foreign policy niceties," said Harry Phillips, a political analyst of 40 years experience at Edith Cowan and Curtin universities in Perth.

As reports of the phone conversation made headlines on both sides of the world, Trump tweeted shortly before midnight in Washington: "Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal."

The tweets threw more confusion about the status of the controversial deal that Australia made with former President Barack Obama late last year.

The United States would resettle up to 1,250 asylum seekers held in offshore processing camps on Pacific islands in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In return, Australia would resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.