海角大神

The normally placid alliance between Australia and the United States got a shakeup on Wednesday after President Trump ended what was scheduled to be an hour-long phone call with聽Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull just 25 minutes into it, according to reports.聽

Mr. Trump became angry at Mr. Turnbull鈥檚 insistence that he honor聽an Obama-era agreement to take in 1,250 refugees held in Australian detention centers in exchange for Australia鈥檚 resettling of another group of refugees from Central America 鈥� a deal that Trump said would cost him politically and amount to importing the聽鈥渘ext Boston bombers," . The phone call, he told Turnbull, was聽鈥渢he worst call by far鈥� of a string made to several other world leaders that day. And attempts by Turnbull and White House officials to play down the testiness of the call were partly foiled by Trump himself, who afterward to denounce the deal.聽

"Do you believe it? The Obama Administration agreed to take thousands of illegal immigrants from Australia. Why? I will study this dumb deal!鈥� he wrote.

The tweet came less than two hours after the US embassy in Canberra said it had received confirmation that the agreement would go forth as planned, further raising doubts about whether Trump would fulfill it. And his grounds of opposition to the deal 鈥� that the United States wasn鈥檛 getting anything out of it 鈥� underscores a transactional approach to foreign policy that could reshape the country鈥檚 map of alliances.

The rocky call with Australia鈥檚 prime minister came less than a week after a similarly tendentious call with Mexican President Enrique聽Pe帽a Nieto, in which Trump was reported to have browbeaten Mr.聽Pe帽a Nieto over Mexico's inability to crush powerful drug cartels and suggested 鈥� jokingly, an administration official later said 鈥� that the US could send its army to Mexico to solve the problem, .听叠耻迟 the most significant focus of potential upheaval, wrote 海角大神鈥檚 Howard LaFranchi in January, may be with Europe.聽

The latest sign that Mr. Trump plans to blaze a new path for US-Europe relations came in a weekend interview he gave the Times of London and Germany鈥檚 Bild in which he expressed indifference to prospects for the European Union. 聽

Predicting further disintegration of the EU following Britain鈥檚 vote last summer to leave the 28-nation union, Trump said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it matters much for the United States.鈥� Moreover, he repeated his campaign assessment that NATO is 鈥渙bsolete鈥� and criticized Alliance members that don鈥檛 pay their share of Europe鈥檚 defense costs....

But European leaders鈥� immediate shock and dismay in response to Trump鈥檚 latest signs of euroskepticism say more about Europe than the US, some regional analysts say. 聽

鈥淚f the Europeans are shocked and horrified at what Trump鈥檚 saying, all it tells me is that they are terrible analysts who simply refuse to see what鈥� going on,鈥� says John Hulsman, a transatlantic affairs expert who heads his own global risk consulting firm in Germany. 鈥淭he European elites for whom Europe is a religion thought that Trump the president would adopt the faith and drop the heretical views of Trump the candidate,鈥� he adds, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 a shock to them that he means what he says.鈥�

In the call with Turnbull, Trump is said to have also bragged of his election victory and the size of his inauguration鈥檚 attendance, along the lines of his comments on the matter at commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr., a speech at CIA headquarters, and meetings with lawmakers.聽

Kim Beazley, a former Australian ambassador to the United States during the Obama era, that fallout would likely be 鈥渕inimal鈥� as long as Trump did not back out of the refugee deal, while adding,聽鈥淚f the tonality is true you wouldn鈥檛 want to have too many conversations like that.鈥�