President Trump has never been the type to mince his words — and in transcripts of his early phone calls as president published by The Washington Post on Thursday, that habit made for some eye-popping quotes.
The transcripts acquired by the Post show Trump pushing back on a refugee deal with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by telling Turnbull he is "the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country," before he announces he has "had it" with their conversation and abruptly hangs up the phone. In a separate call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the transcripts show Trump arguing with Peña Nieto over the border wall and drug trafficking — and deploying a bit of colorful language about the union's ninth state in the process:
[W]e 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. [...] We are becoming a drug-addicted nation and most [of] the drugs are coming from Mexico or certainly from the southern border. [President Trump, via The Washington Post]
That didn't sit too well with New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan (D):
The Post notes that New Hampshire has been "particularly hard hit by heroin and prescription drug abuse" and has the "highest synthetic opioid death rate in the country." Trump captured New Hampshire in the Republican primary race, but lost it to Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Read the full transcripts of Trump's calls with Peña Nieto and Turnbull at The Washington Post.