The real reason Donald Trump was filthy

PEOPLE are criticising Malcolm Turnbull for upsetting Donald Trump but the PM’s actions should be greeted with a sigh of relief.

SO LET’S get this straight. Yesterday people were criticising Malcolm Turnbull for not standing up to Donald Trump. Today they’re criticising Turnbull for upsetting him.

Instead, reports that Trump was enraged during his phone call with the PM should be greeted with a sigh of relief.

It proves the firebrand US president thinks he really might have to honour the deal to take the 1250 asylum seekers still languishing offshore on Manus Island and Nauru. Why else would he be upset?

There is nothing the Donald loves more than a deal. Here was a president who had presented himself as the greatest dealmaker on the planet, who would strike the best bargain for America because he was the toughest negotiator around, and here was a mild-mannered PM from a regional backwater getting the better of him. No wonder he was filthy.

“This is the worst deal ever,” Trump thundered according to The Washington Post, and to Donald that’s the greatest insult one can muster.

Yet according to official statements from both The White House and the State Department it was a deal Trump accepted — even if he later hosed down his language to say he was still considering it.

For those on the sidelines willing Turnbull to fail — a bizarre wish given the same people’s professed concern for the asylum seekers at stake — they may have to keep their champagne corked a moment longer.

Firstly, not once has Trump said that the deal is off, which is extraordinary in itself given that on virtually every other issue he speaks almost entirely in simple, absolutist, unequivocal pronouncements. And it is all the more extraordinary given the amount of political skin he stands to lose.

In the eyes of his supporters, nothing is more fundamental to Trump’s presidency and credibility than extreme border protection and here he is in his first fortnight prepared to punch a massive hole in it for the sake of the Australia-US friendship.

No wonder Turnbull is refusing to say boo about Trump’s other crazy immigration blockades. If I were him I’d be walking on tip-toes with my fingers crossed and praying to everyone from Allah to Zoroaster.

Picture: Pete Marovich/Pool via CNP

But again, the question begs: if Trump wasn’t going to follow through with the deal, why would he be pissed off? The fact that he got upset suggests he felt obliged to follow through with it. Otherwise he would have just ditched it and been happy as Larry.

Of course Trump may well have changed his mind since then but that seems odd too. If he isn’t going to go ahead with it why is he still losing political capital by saying it is still under consideration? If he’s going to kill it, it’s both in his interests and indeed his personal style to act swiftly and decisively.

Instead Trump appears to be sending out parallel messages to placate both parties: one to his international ally that says “don’t worry, everything’s cool” and one to his domestic audience that says “hey, I’m not doing this lightly”. It also sends the clear message that Obama screwed Trump over and it’s not his fault.

Besides, who gave The Washington Post the story in the first place? As Bill Shorten observed, there were only two people in the conversation.

To answer this question, the Roman politician Cicero famously said one only needs to ask “Who benefits?”

In this case, the only person who benefits is Trump. But it only really benefits him if he goes ahead with the deal. As noted, if Trump ends up canning it he will look weak and silly for ever agreeing to it in the first place. However the narrative leaking out now is that Trump fought valiantly for his constituents but got screwed over by the establishment – precisely the same narrative that defined Trump’s whole campaign and probably his very psyche.

It’s only if you’re going to do something your supporters don’t like that you need to let them know how unhappy you are about it. If you’re not going to do it all you have to do is not do it.

In other words, Trump is possibly laying down the political backstory so he can honour the deal but still save face and look like a tough guy. It might just be the most sophisticated PR strategy he’s ever executed.

But of course he might not be doing any of this and could have just had a blow-up on the phone.

The remarkable thing about Trump is that you never really know. And chances are neither does he.