Politics

“We’re Not Babies”: Turnbull’s First Meeting With Trump Was As Awkward As You’d Expect

Yes, they spoke about that phone call.

by Tom Clift  5 May 2017

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The relationship between the Trump and Turnbull governments didn’t exactly get off to the greatest start. First Trump slammed Turnbull over the Obama-era refugee deal during their infamous first phone call. Then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer started negging the PM by repeatedly mispronouncing his name.

Turnbull, to his credit, responded in decisive fashion by trying desperately to downplay the whole situation while maintaining the traditional Australian practice of total deference to our star-spangled overlords.

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Today in New York, Malcolm was rewarded for being on his best behaviour with an actual face-to-face meeting with President Trump, and I think I speak on behalf of all Australians when I say the footage is fucking painful to watch.

The meeting, which was actually delayed repeatedly by the Trump camp (classic power move) took place on aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid, ahead of a dinner commemorating the 75 year anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. That explains the bowties, at least.

Trump tie

Just two millionaires hanging out and having a laugh, no biggie.

“We’re not babies” Trump told a reporter who asked about their fiery phone call. This was despite the fact that the pair looked very much like babies, sounds like fake news if you ask me.

Nevertheless, the President insisted that the phone call actually went great, and that reports of tension between the two leaders has been “exaggerated” by the media. He went on to called Australia “one of the most beautiful places on earth”, and flagged the possibility of paying us a visit. “We’ll be there, absolutely we’ll be there” Trump said.

He also mentioned that he and Turnbull shared a mutual friend in Australian golfer Greg Norman, who can presumably look forward to a job in the diplomatic corps any day now.

Turnbull, for his part, spent most of the meeting wearing the world’s least convincing grin – although he did chime in with the occasional sycophantic comment when he was called on. He’s a good boy, yes he is.

Twitter started roasting the pair almost immediately.