President Trump's Leaked Transcripts: 5 Stunning Quotes You Have To Read

WASHINGTON, DC — If nothing else, President Trump is known for his off-the-cuff, in-your-face speaking style and his willingness to shock public audiences. He gave his Republican rivals insulting nicknames like "Little Marco," recently said his close ally Jeff Sessions was "beleaguered" and famously called Hillary Clinton a "nasty woman" during a presidential debate.

And according to a leaked transcript published in the The Washington Post Thursday, Trump is just as frank and confrontational when speaking privately with other world leaders. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Two transcripts of presidential phone calls, one with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and the other with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, show tense exchanges with an unprecedented level of detail. Previously, parts of these conversations had leaked from the White House, but full transcripts of the conversations had not been seen by the public. The Post published reproductions of the transcripts, rather than the materials themselves, to protect its sources.

Here are five of the most notable quotes from the president's conversations:

1. To Mexican President Peña Nieto: "If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that."

Promising to build a wall on the Mexican border and having our southern neighbor foot the bill was a central part of Trump's campaign. Threatening to cut off diplomatic meetings with Mexico shows an extreme commitment to this policy.

2. To Mexican President Peña Nieto: "But the fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to."

This quote shows that one of his key reasons for insisting that Mexico pay for the wall — which Peña Nieto has publicly refused to do — is so important is not because it's necessarily good policy, but because Trump feels he's in a "political bind." In other words, he feels compelled to follow through on his promise, even if it's not all that important.

3. To Mexican President Peña Nieto: "I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den."

Trump did not win New Hampshire in the general election, though he did win the GOP primary race in the state. Calling any state a "drug-infested den," even in the midst of a serious opioid epidemic, is likely bad politics, and New Hampshire politicians have widely denounced the comment.

4. To Australian Prime Minister Turnbull: "I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day."

Previous leaks about Trump's conversation with the Australian prime minister described it as acrimonious, which the president denied. This quote shows that Trump himself found the conversation, which largely focused on the United States' resettlement of refugees staying in Australia, unpleasant.

5. To Australian Prime Minister Turnbull: "Putin was a pleasant call."

To underline his displeasure with the call, the president compared his discussion with Turnbull unfavorably to his call with the authoritarian Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised in public. A U.S. president telling the leader of an American ally that he prefers a talking to an international rival is an unorthodox approach to diplomacy, to say the least.

Read the full transcripts at the Washington Post>>

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