text: Donald Trump and Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. 
   
   The transcript of Donald Trump’s discussion with Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull obtained by the Washington Post reveals many things, but the most significant may be that Trump in his private negotiations is every bit as mentally limited as he appears to be in public. 
   
   At issue in the conversation is a deal to settle 1,250 refugees who have been detained by Australia in the United States. I did not pay any attention to the details of this agreement before reading the transcript. By the time I was halfway through it, my brain could not stop screaming at Trump for his failure to understand what Turnbull was telling him. 
   
   Australia has a policy of refusing to accept refugees who arrive by boat. The reason, as Turnbull patiently attempts to explain several times, is that it believes giving refuge to people who arrive by boat would encourage smuggling and create unsafe passage with a high risk of deaths at sea. But it had a large number of refugees who had arrived by sea, living in difficult conditions, whom Australia would not resettle (for fear of encouraging more boat trafficking) but whom it did not want to deport, either. The United States government agreed under President Obama to vet 1,250 of these refugees and accept as many of them as it deemed safe. 
   
   In the transcript, Trump is unable to absorb any of these facts. He calls the refugees “prisoners,” and repeatedly brings up the Cuban boatlift (in which Castro dumped criminals onto Florida). He is unable to absorb Turnbull’s explanation that they are economic refugees, not from conflict zones, and that the United States has the ability to turn away any of them it deems dangerous. 
   
   Donald Trump Is His Own Worst Enemy 
   
   Turnbull tries to explain to Trump that refugees have not been detained because they pose a danger to Australian society, but in order to deter ship-based smuggling: 
   
   Trump: Why haven’t you let them out? Why have you not let them into your society? 
   
   Turnbull: Okay, I will explain why. It is not because they are bad people. It is because in order to stop people smugglers, we had to deprive them of the product. So we said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Noble [sic] Prize winning genius, we will not let you in. Because the problem with the people — 
   
   At this point, Trump fails to understand the policy altogether, and proceeds to congratulate Turnbull for what Trump mistakes to be a draconian policy of total exclusion: 
   
   Trump: That is a good idea. We should do that too. You are worse than I am … Because you do not want to destroy your country. Look at what has happened in Germany. Look at what is happening in these countries. 
   
   Trump has completely failed to understand either that the refugees are not considered dangerous, or, again, that they are being held because of a categorical ban on ship-based refugee traffic. 
   
   He also fails to understand the number of refugees in the agreement: 
   
   Trump: I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week. 
   
   Turnbull: With great respect, that is not right – It is not 2,000. 
   
   Trump: Well, it is close. I have also heard like 5,000 as well. 
   
   Turnbull: The given number in the agreement is 1,250 and it is entirely a matter of your vetting. 
   
   Then Trump returns to his belief that they are bad, and failing to understand the concept that they have been detained merely because they arrived by sea and not because they committed a crime: 
   
   Trump: I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people. Turnbull: I would not be so sure about that. They are basically — Trump: Well, maybe you should let them out of prison. 
   
   He still thinks they’re criminals. 
   
   Later, Trump asks what happens if all the refugees fail his vetting process: 
   
   Trump: I hate having to do it, but I am still going to vet them very closely. Suppose I vet them closely and I do not take any? Turnbull: That is the point I have been trying to make. 
   
   After several attempts by Turnbull to explain Australia’s policy, Trump again expresses his total inability to understand what it is: 
   
   Trump: Does anybody know who these people are? Who are they? Where do they come from? Are they going to become the Boston bomber in five years? Or two years? Who are these people? 
   
   Turnbull: Let me explain. We know exactly who they are. They have been on Nauru or Manus for over three years and the only reason we cannot let them into Australia is because of our commitment to not allow people to come by boat. Otherwise we would have let them in. If they had arrived by airplane and with a tourist visa then they would be here. 
   
   Trump: Malcom [sic], but they are arrived on a boat? 
   
   After Turnbull has told Trump several times that the refugees have been detained because they arrived by boat, and only for that reason, Trump’s question is, “But they are arrived on a boat?” 
   
   Soon after, Turnbull again reiterates that Australia’s policy is to detain any refugee who arrives by boat: 
   
   Turnbull: The only people that we do not take are people who come by boa. So we would rather take a not very attractive guy that help you out then to take a Noble [sic] Peace Prize winner that comes by boat. That is the point.” 
   
   Trump: What is the thing with boats? Why do you discriminate against boats? No, I know, they come from certain regions. I get it. 
   
   No, you don’t get it at all! It’s not that they come from certain regions! It’s that they come by boat! 
   
   So Turnbull very patiently tries to explain again that the policy has nothing to do with what region the refugees come from: 
   
   Turnbull: No, let me explain why. The problem with the boats it that you are basically outsourcing your immigration program to people smugglers and also you get thousands of people drowning at sea. 
   
   At this point, Trump gives up asking about the policy and just starts venting about the terribleness of deals in general: 
   
   I do not know what he got out of it. We never get anything out of it — START Treaty, the Iran deal. I do not know where they find these people to make these stupid deals. I am going to get killed on this thing. 
   
   Shortly afterward, the call ends in brusque fashion, and Turnbull presumably begins drinking heavily. ||||| The leak of conversations between the US president and the leaders of Mexico and Australia may well be a cry for help from within the administration 
   
   One of the most significant aspects of the published transcripts of Donald Trump’s conversations with his Mexican and Australian counterparts is the fact they were leaked. 
   
   Trump to Peña Nieto: border wall not so important – just don't say you won't pay Read more 
   
   Private discussions between world leaders are kept secret so they can speak their minds and establish trust. The leaks will make it harder for the US to carry out high-level diplomacy and resolve serious crises, not just under Trump but potentially far beyond his presidency. 
   
   The publication of transcripts by the Washington Post is the latest of many signs that established norms are breaking down inside the administration, with far-reaching and unpredictable implications. 
   
   Such documents should have been very closely held, accessible to only a few senior officials. Their publication reflects the intensity of the war inside the White House between rival factions – and a reminder that, for all his well-advertised toughness, the new chief of staff, John Kelly, is going to find it very hard to impose discipline on an institution that is dysfunctional from the top down. 
   
   It is quite possible that the leaker was motivated by anxiety about the national security implications of Trump’s erratic leadership – that the leak is a cry for help from inside the administration. 
   
   The transcripts of his conversations with Enrique Peña Nieto and Malcolm Turnbull show the president to be no more coherent in private than he is public: ill-informed – even about a major attack on US soil – and narcissistic to the point of absurdity. 
   
   “I am the world’s greatest person,” he tells Turnbull, and boasts to his fellow world leaders about the size of the crowds who turn out to hear him speak. Maintaining his image as a strong leader in the eyes of his supporters emerges, again and again in the course of the conversations, as an overarching priority – over and above the maintenance of strong relations with allied countries. 
   
   The transcripts serve as a reminder that being “nice” to Trump counts for more than long-term strategic alliances. At one point in his castigation of Turnbull, he compared him unfavourably with Vladimir Putin, with whom Trump had recently spoken. 
   
   “Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous,” Trump said shortly before ending the call abruptly. In private as in public, Trump’s praise for the Russian president is an unshakeable constant. 
   
   White House leaks: transcripts show extent of Trump's inconsistencies Read more 
   
   Perhaps the least surprising upshot of the release of the transcripts is the confirmation that the president and his administration deliberately misled the public about them. When the Washington Post published an account of the Turnbull conversation in early February, Trump tweeted that it had been a “very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about”. 
   
   As has happened repeatedly over the course of the administration, the emergence of the facts has upheld the news reports, and shown the denials to be fake. Trump repeatedly tries to coach Peña Nieto on how to mislead the press, urging him to stop repeating Mexico’s refusal to pay for Trump’s proposed border wall. 
   
   The wall and its supposed Mexican funding was a mainstay of Trump campaign speeches. In private, Trump tells the Mexican leader to stop reminding voters of a promise the new president cannot fulfil. He argues the wall and its financing is “the least important thing that we are talking about” and says he is in a “political bind” because he had “been talking about it for a two-year period”. 
   
   Similar themes recur in the Turnbull conversation. Here, the divisive issue is an agreement that the Obama administration struck with Australia to consider accepting 1,250 refugees, mostly from Muslim countries, being detained by Australia on Pacific islands after trying to enter the country by boat. In return, Australia would host Latin American migrants. 
   
   
   
   Trump is furious that abiding by the agreement could harm his image among his voters, just after he had signed his first abortive executive order cutting the acceptance of refugees from Syria and suspending travel from a list of seven mainly Muslim countries. 
   
   “This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country,” Trump says. “It makes me look so bad, and I have only been here a week.” 
   
   The fact that the refugees in question are from Muslim countries is the key for Trump. “I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad,” he said. 
   
   Turnbull pleads with him to stick to the agreement for the sake of the bilateral relationship and in the end, Trump agrees he does not have much choice, but does so with little grace, aiming a personal slight at the Australian, saying he had “brokered many a stupid deal in business”. 
   
   For all Turnbull’s attempts to smooth over their differences, Trump is clearly in a foul temper by the end of the discussion, and broader bilateral issues are shelved. When Turnbull asks to discuss Syria and North Korea – two global crises in which their two countries are strategic partners – Trump is not interested and ends the call. ||||| The nature of this particular leak suggests just such a national-security establishment origin. It is a very elegantly designed leak. The two transcripts belong to calls whose substance was already widely reported in the media; they give away nothing new. 
   
   Better still from a national-security establishment point of view: both calls make the foreign leader look good at home. Enrique Peña Nieto will be helped, not hurt, by his dignified defense of Mexican national interests; Malcolm Turnbull is shown being simultaneously compassionate to deserving refugees but stern in his defense of Australian law and preexisting agreements with the United States. 
   
   Best of all, from that same national-security point of view, the transcripts reveal Trump as an arrant fool without actually compromising any important U.S. national interest. Speaking to the president of Mexico, Trump claims he won the state of New Hampshire because it is a “drug-infested den.” Trump won the state’s Republican primary, but lost New Hampshire in 2016, and that quote will not help him do better in 2020. The Turnbull transcript confirms the accuracy of early reports that Trump erupted in temper—and exposes Trump’s claims about the call as untrue. "Thank you to Prime Minister of Australia for telling the truth about our very civil conversation that FAKE NEWS media lied about. Very nice!” he tweeted on February 3. But the transcript records him saying: "As far as I am concerned that is enough Malcom. I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous." 
   
   But if no high national-security secret has been betrayed in these transcripts, the workings of the U.S. government have been gravely compromised, and in ways that will be very difficult to repair even after Trump leaves office. Trump’s violation of basic norms of government has driven people who would otherwise uphold those norms unto death to violate them in their turn. Contempt for Trump’s misconduct inspires counter-misconduct. 
   
   Nor is that the end. The less Trump can trust the regularly constituted government, the more justified he will feel in working irregularly. His irregular actions then justify more counter-irregularity from the rest of the government. 
   
   Donald Trump has launched the executive branch into a cycle of self-destruction for which he bears ultimate blame—but whose ultimate cost will be borne by his successors and the American nation. ||||| ADVERTISEMENT 
   
   President Trump's Jan. 27 phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Jan. 28 phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull were long rumored to be chaotic. But no one quite realized how wild they were until The Washington Post published transcripts of the conversations on Thursday. Recorded by White House note-takers and circulated among senior administration staff, the transcripts reveal startling insight into the president's approach — and frustrations — when negotiating with other world leaders. 
   
   The first conversation, with Peña Nieto, revolved around Trump trying to get the Mexican leader to stop publicly refusing to pay for Trump's long-promised border wall. Trump's exchange with Turnbull was even more heated, as Trump vented about an Obama-era agreement to take 1,250 refugees from Australia. 
   
   Read the most eye-popping quotes below. And be sure to read the full transcript at The Washington Post. It's worth your time. 
   
   Trump spoke to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Jan. 27. Peña Nieto spoke Spanish during the conversation, but could understand Trump's English. 
   
   1. "We lost a lot of factories in Ohio and Michigan and I won these states — some of these states have not been won in 38 years by a Republican and I won them very easily. So they are dancing in the streets. You probably have the same thing where they are dancing in your streets also, but in reverse." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   2. "And we have the drug lords in Mexico that are knocking the hell out of our country. They are sending drugs to Chicago, Los Angeles, and to New York. Up in New Hampshire — I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den — is coming from the southern border." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   3. "You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with, and we are willing to help you with that big-league. But they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job of knocking them out. We have a massive drug problem where kids are becoming addicted to drugs because drugs are being sold for less money than candy because there is so much of it." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   4. "I have been given as president tremendous taxation powers for trade and for other reasons — far greater than anybody understands." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   5. "They are going to say, 'Who is going to pay for the wall, Mr. President?' to both of us, and we should both say, 'We will work it out.' It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, 'We will not pay' and me saying, 'We will not pay.'" [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   6. "But you cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall. I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about. But in terms of dollars — or pesos — it is the least important thing. I know how to build very inexpensively, so it will be much lower than these numbers I am being presented with, and it will be a better wall and it will look nice. And it will do the job." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   7. "Your citizens are being killed all over the place, your police officers are being shot in the head, and your children are being killed." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   8. "It is you and I against the world, Enrique, do not forget." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   9. "I want you to be so popular that your people will call for a constitutional amendment in Mexico so that you can run again for another six years." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   10. "Your words are so beautiful. Those are beautiful words and I do not think I can speak that beautifully, okay? It would be great to put those words at the end of the statement. Really nice though." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   The next day, President Trump spoke to Australian Prime Minister Turnbull on the phone. The conversation turned tense when Trump and Turnbull begin to discuss an Obama-era agreement that the United States take 1,250 refugees from Australia who reached the country by boat. Australia refuses to accept any refugees who come to its shores this way. 
   
   11. "Really, it looks like 2,000 people that Australia does not want and I do not blame you by the way, but the United States has become like a dumping ground." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   12. "I heard about this — I have to say I love Australia; I love the people of Australia. I have so many friends from Australia, but I said — geez that is a big ask, especially in light of the fact that we are so heavily in favor, not in favor, but we have no choice but to stop things. We have to stop. We have allowed so many people into our country that should not be here. We have our San Bernardinos, we have had the World Trade Center come down because of people that should not have been in our country, and now we are supposed to take 2,000. It sends such a bad signal. You have no idea. It is such a bad thing." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   13. "You are worse than I am." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   14. "This is going to kill me. I am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week. [Turnbull replies, "With great respect, that is not right — It is not 2,000."] Well, it is close. I have also heard like 5,000 as well." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   15. "I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   16. "Look, I do not know how you got them to sign a deal like this, but that is how they lost the election. They said I had no way to 270 and I got 306. That is why they lost the election, because of stupid deals like this." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   17. "I look like a dope." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   18. "Can Australia give me a guarantee that if we have any problems — you know that is what they said about the Boston bombers. They said they were wonderful young men. [Turnbull: "They were Russians. They were not from any of these countries."] They were from wherever they were." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   19. "What is the thing with boats? Why do you discriminate against boats?" [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   20. "I will be seen as a weak and ineffective leader in my first week by these people. This is a killer." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] 
   
   21. "I have had it. I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day. Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous." [President Trump, via The Washington Post] ||||| The Washington Post on Thursday published portions of classified transcripts of combative phone calls President Trump had earlier this year with the leaders of Mexico and Australia. 
   
   The transcripts portray acrimonious conversations between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, largely on the issues of immigration, border wall funding and refugees. 
   
   The release of the transcripts is likely to anger Trump for two reasons. First, the transcript of the phone call with Peña Nieto shows that Trump views construction of the border wall more as a political necessity than as a security issue. Trump has also fumed about sensitive leaks coming from his administration, which he sees as an attempt to undermine his presidency. Last week, Trump publicly criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not doing enough to find and punish the leakers. 
   
   There is no indication in the Post report of who leaked the call transcripts. But the newspaper notes that read-outs, which are compiled from notes taken during the phone calls, are often shared among White House staff and policymakers. 
   
   In his Jan. 27 call with Peña Nieto, Trump pressured the Mexican president to stop contradicting him about funding for the wall that Trump says he wants to build at the U.S.-Mexico border. 
   
   Trump suggested that both he and Peña Nieto should issue vague remarks about who will pay for the wall. 
   
   “We should both say, ‘We will work it out.’ It will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, according to the classified transcript. “As opposed to you saying, ‘We will not pay,’ and me saying, ‘We will not pay.'” 
   
   Peña Nieto rebuffed Trump, saying that “my position has been and will continue to be very firm, saying that Mexico cannot pay for the wall.” 
   
   “But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that,” Trump responded. 
   
   Trump also indicated that his talk of the border wall was a political ploy. 
   
   Noting that construction of the wall had been a major campaign theme for two years, Trump called the wall “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.” 
   
   Trump’s conversation with Turnbull was even more combative, the call transcript shows. 
   
   Trump and Turnbull disagreed over an agreement made by President Obama to accept refugees from Australian detention centers operating in Papua New Guinea. 
   
   The Obama administration had agreed to take in 1,250 refugees as part of a humanitarian aid deal with the UN. But Trump said he opposed the deal, and expressed concerns that some of the refugees would become terrorists down the road. 
   
   “This is going to kill me,” Trump told Turnbull, according to The Post. “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people,” he added, inflating the number of refugees being allowed into the U.S. 
   
   “I hate taking these people,” Trump said later in the 24-minute conversation. “I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people.” 
   
   Turnbull attempted to appeal to Trump’s experience as a businessman. 
   
   “There is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Turnbull told Trump. “You can certainly say that it was not a deal that you would have done, but you are going to stick with it.” 
   
   Trump said that he was concerned that one of the refugees would “become the Boston bomber in five years.” 
   
   “I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made,” Trump added. “As far as I am concerned, that is enough, Malcolm. I have had it.” 
   
   Turnbull attempted to salvage the conversation, but Trump ended the call in frustration. 
   
   Follow Chuck on Twitter ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
   
   / Updated By Corky Siemaszko 
   
   President Donald Trump’s trashing of New Hampshire as a "drug-infested den" in a telephone conversation with the president of Mexico did not go over well in the Granite State. 
   
   Outraged by the jab, Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., took to Trump’s favorite social media platform Thursday and called his remark “disgusting.” 
   
   "Instead of insulting people in the throes of addiction, @POTUS needs to work across party lines to actually stem the tide of this crisis," Hassan tweeted. 
   
   New Hampshire's other Democratic senator, Jeanne Shaheen, called Trump's reported remarks "absolutely unacceptable" and said he owes her state "an apology." 
   
   The state's Republican governor, Chris Sununu, slammed Trump as well. 
   
   "The President is wrong," the governor said in a statement. "It's disappointing his mischaracterization of this epidemic ignores the great things this state has to offer." 
   
   Grant Bosse, the editorial page editor of the conservative and influential Manchester-based New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper, said the paper was also preparing a response to Trump’s reported remark. In a statement to NBC News, he wrote: 
   
   "Campaigning in New Hampshire's First in the Nation primary, Donald Trump was impressed by the severity of the festering drug crisis, and he shared the frustration of New Hampshire voters. Trump being Trump, he's using exaggerated and crude language, which is hardly useful. He should also know that New Hampshire is at the forefront of dealing with this crisis, which has hit us as hard as anywhere." 
   
   On his Twitter page, Bosse also took aim at Trump's Democratic critics. 
   
   The president made the disparaging remark about New Hampshire in a Jan. 27 conversation with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the transcript of which was obtained by The Washington Post and published Thursday. 
   
   As seen in the transcript, Trump raised the issue of New Hampshire as he pressed a reluctant Peña Nieto to pay for his border wall. 
   
   "We have a massive drug problem where kids are becoming addicted to drugs because the drugs are being sold for less money than candy," he said. "I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den." 
   
   In reality, Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire by about 3,000 votes in the presidential election. But Trump handily won the Republican primary. 
   
   So far the White House has declined to comment on the leaked transcripts of Trump’s calls with Peña Nieto or his Jan. 28 telephone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. 
   
   But New Hampshire does have a serious drug problem and has been hit hard by the deadly opioid epidemic. In 2015, it was the state with the second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths (after West Virginia) with 34.3 per 100,000 people, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
   
   Both Hassan and Shaheen have been pressing the Trump administration to make good on its promises to "combat the opioid epidemic." 
   
   So far, Hassan tweeted, Trump has not made good on his promises. ||||| Photo: AP 
   
   To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. — C.S. Lewis 
   
   My dearest, 
   
   So you put me back on the hook. To be very honest with you, I did not want to have a meeting. Your words are so beautiful. Those are beautiful words and I do not think I can speak that beautifully, okay? I look so foolish doing this. 
   
   Advertisement 
   
   I am not like this but, if I have to do it, I will do it but I do not like this at all. I will be honest with you. I met you the one time and I studied you. You are a very hard person to study. It is incredible. 
   
   But we cannot do this and we cannot sustain like this. Totally true—and you have seen the same thing. No, I do not want say that. I am just going to say that we are working it out. 
   
   And certainly, as to the relationship and friendship, I consider you a friend. I would love to continue talking. I want a great relationship. Far greater than anybody understands. You have to see what I am doing. And I want to reiterate, you and I will always be friends do not worry. 
   
   Okay, this shows me to be a dope. It will never be the same. 
   
   Yours always, 
   
   Donald ||||| The Post obtained transcripts of President Trump's January 2017 phone conversations with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (The Washington Post) 
   
   President Trump is obsessed with this election win, thinks New Hampshire is a “drug-infested den,” worries about looking like “a dope” and doesn't want to talk publicly about who is going to pay for the wall. 
   
   These are among the themes and standout moments from Trump's January telephone conversations with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The Washington Post's Greg Miller obtained transcripts of the calls and published them Thursday. 
   
   You can read the full, annotated transcripts here. The Fix has pulled out eight of the most jaw-dropping passages and added context: 
   
   1. TRUMP TO PEÑA NIETO: We have the drug lords in Mexico that are knocking the hell out of our country. They are sending drugs to Chicago, Los Angeles and to New York. Up in New Hampshire — I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den — is coming from the southern border. So we have a lot of problems with Mexico farther than the economic problem. We are becoming a drug-addicted nation and most of the drugs are coming from Mexico or certainly from the southern border. But I will say this — you have that problem, too. You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with, and we are willing to help you with that big league. 
   
   Recall that Trump's critics hit him hard for using the phrase “bad hombres” during a presidential debate in October, so it is striking that he would repeat a variation in a call with the president of Mexico. Trump's dim appraisal of New Hampshire recalls his description of “American carnage” in his inauguration speech seven days earlier. It's not clear what win Trump was referencing. He lost the state by less than half a percentage point to Hillary Clinton but won the Republican primary there. 
   
   The Washington Post released the full transcripts of President Trump's calls with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull from January. Here's what the White House said about the conversations at the time. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post) 
   
   2. TRUMP TO TURNBULL: Look, I spoke to Putin, Merkel, Abe of Japan, to France today, and this was my most unpleasant call. 
   
   This is extraordinary language for the leader of one friendly country to say to another. The whole point of these phone calls, days after Trump was inaugurated, was for the two leaders to get to know each other and start things off on the best possible note. Trump steamrolled that objective when he compared his conversation with the Australian prime minister, leader of one of America's staunchest allies, to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had just meddled in the U.S. election, and deemed Putin more pleasant. The Post published a summary of this conversation in February, reporting that "25 minutes into what was expected to be an hour-long call, Trump abruptly ended it.” Now the full transcript is public. 
   
   3. PEÑA NIETO: To tell you the truth, Mr. President, I feel quite surprised about this new proposal that you are making because it is different from the discussion that both of our teams have been holding. 
   
   TRUMP: Enrique, if I can interrupt — this is not a new proposal. This is what I have been saying for a year and a half on the campaign trail. I have been telling this to every group of 50,000 people or 25,000 people — because no one got the people in their rallies as big as I did. But I have been saying I wanted to tax people that treated us unfairly at the border, and Mexico is treating us unfairly. 
   
   The proposal that caught Peña Nieto by surprise was a tariff on goods imported from Mexico to the United States. Trump agreed that a tariff had not been discussed in talks between White House adviser Jared Kushner and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray but said Peña Nieto should have expected it, based on Trump's campaign rhetoric. Note the way Trumps slips in a boast about his crowd size. 
   
   4. TRUMP TO TURNBULL: I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go on to work for the local milk people. 
   
   In both phone calls, Trump seems singularly focused on bad people getting into the U.S. and how bad it will make him look. He had just signed an executive order banning travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations (which courts would later block). His logic is that if he agrees to take in 1,250 immigrants who landed in Australia, per a deal the Obama administration made, he'll look like a hypocrite. Especially if Trump's greatest fear is realized and one of these people turns into the “Boston bomber” (his words) or the next “San Bernardino or World Trade Centers” (also his words). Nevermind that Turnbull explains to Trump, several times, that these immigrants were vetted both by Australian and U.S. security officials. 
   
   5. TRUMP TO PEÑA NIETO: In the latest election, I won with a large percentage of Hispanic voters. I do not know if you heard, but with Cuba, I had 84 percent with the Cuban American vote. But overall generally, I had well over 30 percent, and everyone was shocked to see this. I understand the community, and they understand me, and I have a great respect for the Mexican people. 
   
   Trump loves to brag about his victory, but it is not clear where he came up with his statistic about Cuban American voters. According to the Pew Research Center, Trump did win 54 percent of the Cuban American vote in Florida, but the White House has not been able to back up Trump's claim to have won 84 percent of the Cuban American vote nationally. On the overall Latino vote, Trump is in the ballpark. He got 28 percent of the vote, according to exit polling. 
   
   6. TRUMP TO TURNBULL: What is the thing with boats? Why do you discriminate against boats? 
   
   In these phone calls, Trump also displays a very shallow understanding of foreign policy. Here, he seems baffled by Australia's policy of rejecting refugees who arrive by boat, despite the fact that Turnbull had also explained several times that it's a deterrent policy: Anyone who tries to migrate to Australia by water will automatically get kicked out. “So we said if you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Nobel Prize winning genius, we will not let you in,” Turnbull finally says. 
   
   7. TRUMP TO PEÑA NIETO: In Ohio, they are having rallies for Trump right now because Trump has taken a hard stance on Mexico. We lost a lot of factories in Ohio and Michigan, and I won these states — some of these states have not been won in 38 years by a Republican, and I won them very easily. So they are dancing in the streets. You probably have the same thing where they are dancing in your streets also but in reverse. 
   
   Trump's habit of talking about himself in the third person is on display here — as is his sense of humor. His line about Mexicans dancing in the streets “in reverse” appears to be a joke about protests against his election. 
   
   8. TRUMP TO TURNBULL: I look like a dope.
target: – The transcripts of President Trump's conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia leaked to the Washington Post are giving Americans insight into Trump's negotiating style and how he's relating to America's allies, but David Frum at the Atlantic writes the leak of the transcripts is "unprecedented, shocking, and dangerous." Frum says it's vital foreign leaders know they can speak freely with Trump without their words getting out. "No leader will again speak candidly on the phone to Washington, DC—at least for the duration of this presidency, and perhaps for longer," Frum writes. He says the leaks are evidence of the "cycle of self-destruction" Trump has started in which his misconduct spurs misconduct from the opposition. Here's what else you need to know about the leaked transcripts: The transcripts show Trump continues to lie to the public, the Guardian reports. For example, he accused accounts of his contentious phone call with Australia's Malcolm Turnbull of being "FAKE NEWS," claiming the conversation was "very civil." The transcripts show it was anything but. Meanwhile, Splinter has used bits and pieces of the transcripts to compose a "beautiful, agonizing love letter": "Your words are so beautiful. Those are beautiful words and I do not think I can speak that beautifully." In addition to being angry over the leak itself, Trump is certain to be upset the transcript of his conversation with Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto shows him admitting the border wall is about politics, not security, the Daily Caller reports. Trump asks Peña Nieto to stop saying Mexico won't pay for the wall—even if it's true—because it's making Trump look bad. The Washington Post lists eight "jaw-dropping" lines from the transcripts, including Trump claiming refugees in Australia are criminals who won't "go on to work for the local milk people" and telling Turnbull theirs was the "most unpleasant call." Need more? The Week has 21 "eye-popping" lines, including telling Peña Nieto, "It is you and I against the world, Enrique, do not forget." Trump also tells Peña Nieto "Your citizens are being killed all over the place, your police officers are being shot in the head, and your children are being killed." During his conversation with Peña Nieto, Trump called New Hampshire a "drug-infested den." NBC News reports this didn't go over well in New Hampshire, where the state's Democratic senators called the comment "disgusting" and "unacceptable" and its Republican governor said Trump was "wrong." Finally, Trump's conversation with Turnbull shows he's either unwilling or unable to comprehend the facts around the 1,250 refugees the US agreed to accept from Australia, Jonathan Chait writes for New York. Trump misstates the number of refugees multiple times, repeatedly and incorrectly calls them criminals, and eventually gets frustrated, asking Turnbull, "What is the thing with the boats?"