--- title: Trump Tweets About 'Dumb' Refugee Deal With Australia description: The president took to Twitter Wednesday to criticize an Obama administration deal with Australia to resettle some refugees in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/ author: Feliz Solomon article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-02T06:03:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:05:26.125Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Vows to Scrutinize 'Dumb' Australia Refugee Deal og:description: The Obama administration had promised to accept over a thousand asylum seekers. og:url: https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt322efdcdd0fc1e55/6988b8a1f887dc7aace98f0e/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4609 og:image:height: 2593 og:image:alt: Trump Meets With Congressional Lawmakers At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Vows to Scrutinize 'Dumb' Australia Refugee Deal twitter:description: The Obama administration had promised to accept over a thousand asylum seekers. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt322efdcdd0fc1e55/6988b8a1f887dc7aace98f0e/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Vows to Scrutinize 'Dumb' Refugee Deal After a Reportedly Hostile Call with Australia's Leader > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Feb 2, 2017 6:03 AM UTC  President Trump attends a meeting with Senate and House legislators at the White House, on Feb. 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump attends a meeting with Senate and House legislators at the White House, on Feb. 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Feliz Solomon](https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/) ## Feliz Solomon Feb 2, 2017 6:03 AM UTC Following new public details about a recent phone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, President Donald Trump took to Twitter late Wednesday to criticize a deal brokered between Canberra and the administration of former President Barack Obama to resettle some refugees in the United States. Trump vowed to “study this dumb deal,” in which the previous administration agreed to accept 1,250 asylum seekers from Australian-run detention centers on the Pacific islands of Manus and Nauru—roughly half of the people who are stuck in limbo off the Australian coast. Australia refuses to accept them or even allow them to be processed on Australian soil. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827002559122567168) The _Washington Post_ [reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-gday-mate-on-call-with-australian-pm-trump-badgers-and-brags/2017/02/01/88a3bfb0-e8bf-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d%5Fstory.html?tid=sm%5Ftw&utm%5Fterm=.53a2c4abb22a) that Trump criticized the deal during a phone conversation with Turnbull on Saturday that anonymous senior officials depicted as hostile. The call, which the _Post_ said the White House declined to comment on, reportedly centered on the refugee deal and was prematurely ended by an aggravated Trump. If the tone of the call is verified, it would represent a startling departure from the manner in which previous American leaders have addressed their counterparts in Australia, which has been a steadfast American ally for decades and allows Washington to base hundreds of Marines there. According to the _Post,_ White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer [told reporters](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the%5Famericas/australian-pm-says-not-sure-how-many-refugees-us-will-accept/2017/01/31/28378f14-e836-11e6-903d-9b11ed7d8d2a%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.cddefa8d11d6) earlier this week that Trump agreed during the phone call to honor the agreement, and said that the refugees would be subject to “extreme vetting” procedures. However, the officials cited by the _Post,_ who had reportedly been briefed on the call, said Trump told Turnbull that he was “going to get killed” politically if he honored what he called “the worst deal ever.” Tightening up immigration was one of Trump’s core campaign promises and among the first issues he took up during his first week in office. [His executive order](http://time.com/4648516/donald-trump-immigration-executive-orders/) barring all refugees and banning travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries caused chaos over the weekend, prompting protests, confusion and knotty legal cases over refugees, immigrants and permanent residents detained at airports across the United States. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/"},"headline":"Trump Vows to Scrutinize 'Dumb' Refugee Deal After a Reportedly Hostile Call with Australia's Leader","datePublished":"2017-02-02T06:03:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:05:26.125Z","description":"The Obama administration had promised to accept more than a thousand refugees held in Australian-run detention camps","url":"https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","Australia","Immigration","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt322efdcdd0fc1e55/6988b8a1f887dc7aace98f0e/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Feliz Solomon","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/feliz-solomon/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt322efdcdd0fc1e55/6988b8a1f887dc7aace98f0e/trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Meets With Congressional Lawmakers At The White House","caption":"Trump Meets With Congressional Lawmakers At The White House","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4657577/trump-australia-refugee-deal-turnbull/","name":"Trump Vows to Scrutinize 'Dumb' Refugee Deal After a Reportedly Hostile Call with Australia's Leader"}}]}] ```