Senators reassure Australia after call

WASHINGTON -- Senators from both major parties rushed to assure Australia that the United States remains a staunch ally after a tense discussion between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; and Jack Reed, D-R.I., all spoke with Joe Hockey, Australia's ambassador to the United States, and expressed their support for the U.S.-Australia alliance. Their calls on Thursday came after Trump stressed the need for "tough" talk to make sure other nations don't take advantage of the United States.

But the Trump White House has said little about a spike in the violence in eastern Ukraine, where the Kiev government has accused Russia-backed forces of stepping up attacks. McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged Trump in a letter sent Wednesday to respond decisively to what McCain described as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "violent campaign to destabilize and dismember the sovereign nation of Ukraine."

McCain said Putin "will not stop unless and until he meets a strong and determined response," and the senator urged Trump to supply Ukraine with defensive lethal assistance that Congress authorized in recent defense policy legislation. McCain said the Ukrainians are not asking Americans to fight for them but just for help.

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"Failing to do so now not only risks Ukraine's sovereignty but the further erosion of American credibility," McCain wrote.

McCain, now in his sixth term in the Senate, has emerged as Trump's top Republican critic in Congress. While GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have largely refrained from scolding the new president, McCain hasn't been shy about calling Trump out.

In the two weeks since Trump's inauguration, McCain has broken with Trump on his immigration order, warned him against rapprochement with Moscow, lectured him on the illegality of torture, and hammered the president for backing away from international free-trade agreements.

The senator's call with the Australian ambassador and his statement highlighting the conversation further underscore McCain's unease with Trump's policies and his approach to issues.

Turnbull said an arrangement negotiated with President Barack Obama's administration was still on to allow mostly Muslim refugees rejected by Australia to be resettled in the United States. But Trump declared the pact "dumb" and pledged a review.

The Obama administration agreed to resettle refugees from among about 1,600 asylum seekers, most of whom are on island camps on the Pacific nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Australia has refused to accept them and instead pays for them to be housed on the impoverished islands.

The White House suggested Thursday that the agreement would continue, with spokesman Sean Spicer saying any of the refugees who come to the United States would undergo "extreme vetting," but provided no details. He blasted the Obama administration for striking the agreement in the first place, saying the new president was "extremely upset" to have inherited the deal.

Trump, appearing moments later at an event with Harley-Davidson executives, said he has to "respect" actions of the previous administration. "But you can also say, 'Why are we doing this?'" he said.

In an interview with Sydney Radio 2SM, Turnbull assured Australians that the U.S. would honor the agreement despite Trump's latest comments.

"He's been very critical of the deal that President Obama did," Turnbull said. "He clearly wouldn't have done it himself, but we persuaded him to stick with it nonetheless. That was the outcome that we wanted to achieve and that's what I've achieved."

In a speech Thursday, Trump appeared to acknowledge the tense Saturday phone call with Turnbull, as well as blunt conversation in an earlier call with the Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

"Believe me. When you hear about the tough phone calls I'm having, don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it," he said at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. "They're tough. We have to be tough. It's time we're going to be a little tough, folks. We're being taken advantage of by every nation in the world virtually."

"I can assure you the relationship is very strong," Turnbull said. "The fact we received the assurance that we did, the fact that it was confirmed, the very extensive engagement we have with the new administration underlines the closeness of the alliance. But as Australians know me very well: I stand up for Australia in every forum -- public or private."

The Trump-Turnbull call took place a day after Trump signed an executive order suspending the admission of refugees. During the call, Trump complained that he was "going to get killed" politically by the refugee deal with Australia, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous officials.

"I don't want these people," Trump reportedly said. Trump also told Turnbull that he had spoken to four world leaders that day and that: "This is the worst call by far."

Trump told Turnbull that it was "my intention" to honor the agreement, a phrase designed to leave the president wriggle room to back out of the deal, the newspaper reported.

There have been mixed messages from Washington all week on the state of the agreement.

A White House statement sent to Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday said: "The president is still considering whether or not he will move forward with this deal at this time."

The State Department said in a statement later that the United States would honor the agreement "out of respect for close ties to our Australian ally and friend."

"President Trump's decision to honor the refugee agreement has not changed and spokesman Spicer's comments stand," the State Department said.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace and Rod McGuirk of The Associated Press

A Section on 02/03/2017