So someone in the White House has leaked (internal, unpublished) transcripts of the early days conversations between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (about tariffs and the Wall), and another with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (about taking in refugees). A few thoughts.
1. Trump went into office (and still is) hugely image-conscious. His biggest quarreling point with Peña Nieto (whom he keeps calling Enrique even though the Mexican President doesn't call him Donald) is over how Mexican intransigence over who will pay for the Wall is making him look bad, so they simply shouldn't discuss the agreement in public. With Turnbull, it's over how letting in thousands of refugees per an earlier agreement with Obama (which didn't actually say that) would make him look "like a dope" after he had just issued his Muslim-ish travel and refugee ban.
He argues other points as well — jobs lost to Mexico, crime on the border, the security issues around those Australian-held refugees (which Turnbull keeps having to correct him on), but it's all, first and foremost, how this will make him look. "This deal will make me look terrible."
The official White House summaries of these calls made them out to be calm and pleasant. They sound anything but. That's not necessarily a sin, and hardly an impeachable offence, but something to remember the next time you hear a similar statement from the White House.
2. A more significant aspect here is that someone actually leaked these. That's big. These aren't Top Secret Plans to Nuclear Wessels or something like that, but it would certainly be a firing offense if the person were caught, and quite likely something they could be indicted for.
It says something about the mood in the White House these days that someone would go to this risk after the (brief) Scaramucci hunt for leakers, and the presumed Kelly crusade again them. Especially since there's nothing specifically awful revealed about the President here, just pettiness and the painful insecurity of our top leader.
For the record, given that it's not what I'd call useful whistle-blowing, I sort of have to disapprove of the leaks. Diplomacy is a dirty game, and the participants need to be able to trust that their conversations are largely private ones. If there's a serious threat that a future conversation might be made public, it will only (a) serve to isolate the US further diplomatically, and/or (b) drive Trump into more no-notes-taken chats with other world leaders, which is also probably not a good thing.
‘This deal will make me look terrible’: Full transcripts of Trump’s calls with Mexico and Australia
The Post has obtained transcripts of President Donald Trump’s talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in January.
