Transcripts Show How Contentious Trump’s Calls Were With Mexican and Australian Leaders

The call with Mr. Turnbull was even more testy as the president complained about what he called “a disgusting deal” that Australia had sealed with President Barack Obama in which the United States agreed to consider accepting up to 1,250 economic refugees. Mr. Trump complained that he would look “so foolish” doing so after barring refugees from the rest of the world.

“I have had it,” Mr. Trump snapped toward the end of the call. “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.”

Transcripts of a president’s conversations with foreign leaders are rarely made public, and the disclosure prompted another White House complaint about secrets slipping out.

“It’s a national security matter when phone call transcripts are being leaked out,” Lindsay Walters, the White House deputy press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One as Mr. Trump flew to an event in West Virginia. “It prevents the president from being able to do, you know, what he does best and negotiate with foreign leaders.”

But the full accounts of the conversations illustrated Mr. Trump’s approach with foreign leaders — flattering his counterpart one moment, badgering him the next, always conscious of how the policies being discussed connected to his campaign promises and how they would affect his domestic political standing.

Fresh from his inauguration, he had his campaign victory on his mind, boasting to Mr. Peña Nieto that “no one got people in the rallies as big as I did” and to Mr. Turnbull that “they said I had no way to get to 270” votes in the Electoral College “and I got 306.” He buttered up Mr. Peña Nieto, telling the interpreter on their call that “he speaks better English than me,” suggesting that the Mexican president would be so popular that the Mexican people will amend their constitution to allow him to run again and declaring that “it is you and I against the world, Enrique, do not forget.”

But there was an edge to both conversations as he sought to bring his campaign platform to fruition. The talk with Mr. Peña Nieto on Jan. 27 came after the Mexican leader canceled a meeting with Mr. Trump because of their dispute over who would pay for the proposed border wall. The two never resolved that on the call, with both men clearly worried about the political effect in their own countries.

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“We find this completely unacceptable for Mexicans to pay for the wall that you are thinking of building,” Mr. Peña Nieto told Mr. Trump, explaining how precarious his position was at home. “I would also like to make you understand, President Trump, the lack of margin I have as president of Mexico to accept this situation.”

Mr. Trump too was conscious of his own position: “On the wall, you and I both have political problem. My people stand up and say, ‘Mexico will pay for the wall,’ and your people probably say something in a similar but slightly different language. 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. I have been talking about it for a two-year period.”

Mr. Trump suggested papering over the dispute in public comments: “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.’”

Mr. Peña Nieto told Mr. Trump that he had put him in a bad position. “You have a very big mark on our back, Mr. President, regarding who pays for the wall,” he said. “This is what I suggest, Mr. President: Let us stop talking about the wall.”

He added that he understood that any country had the right to protect its border. “But my position has been and will continue to be very firm saying that Mexico cannot pay for that wall.”

“But you cannot say that to the press,” Mr. Trump complained. “The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances.”

Mr. Peña Nieto repeated that they should stop talking about the wall. “I understand the critical political position that this constitutes for your country and for you, Mr. President,” he said. “Let us look for a creative way to jump over this obstacle.”

Mr. Trump’s call with Mr. Turnbull the next day, Jan. 28, proved more combative. Mr. Trump said he had been told that he had to accept refugees held by Australia on the islands of Nauru or Manus for more than three years.

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“Somebody told me yesterday that close to 2,000 people are coming who are really troublesome,” he complained to Mr. Turnbull. “And I am saying, boy that will make us look awfully bad. Here I am calling for a ban where I am not letting anybody in and we take 2,000 people. 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.”

Mr. Turnbull explained that the deal did not require the United States to take 2,000 people but it was important for the United States to live up to its commitment. “This is a big deal,” he said. “I think we should respect deals.”

“Who made the deal?” Mr. Trump asked. “Obama?”

“Yes,” Mr. Turnbull said, “but let me describe what it is.” The United States had agreed only to consider accepting up to 1,250 refugees, but each of them would be subject to vetting and could be rejected. The people at issue were economic refugees, mainly from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said, not criminals or terrorists.

“Why haven’t you let them out?” Mr. Trump demanded. “Why have you not let them into your society?”

“It is not because they are bad people,” Mr. Turnbull said. “It is because in order to stop people-smugglers, we have to deprive them of the product.” Australia by policy, he said, refuses to accept refugees who arrive by boat because it would encourage smugglers to keep charging desperate people to bring them there.

“That is a good idea,” Mr. Trump said. “We should do that too. You are worse than I am.”

Mr. Turnbull implored the president to abide by the agreement. “I am asking you as a very good friend. This is a big deal. It is really, really important to us that we maintain it.”

“Malcolm, why is this so important?” Mr. Trump said. “I do not understand. This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country.” Going along with the deal “puts me in a bad position.”

He added, “It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week.”

Mr. Turnbull repeated that it was only 1,250 people, each of them subject to vetting.

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“I will be honest with you, I hate taking these people,” Mr. Trump said. “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.”

“I would not be so sure about that,” Mr. Turnbull said.

“Well, maybe you should let them out of prison. I am doing this because Obama made a bad deal.”

“But I can say to you, there is nothing more important in business or politics than a deal is a deal,” Mr. Turnbull said.

“This is a stupid deal,” Mr. Trump said. “This deal will make me look terrible.”

“Mr. President, I think this will make you look like a man who stands by the commitments of the United States.”

Mr. Trump was not buying it. “O.K., this shows me to be a dope,” he said. “I am not like this but if I have to do it, I will do it, but I do not like this at all.”

He said that he worried that the terrorists like those who killed Americans in Boston, San Bernardino and New York could be admitted to the country: “I am going to get killed on this thing.”

“You will not,” Mr. Turnbull insisted.

“Yes, I will be seen as a weak and ineffective leader in my first week by these people. This is a killer.”

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In West Virginia, Trump Hails Conservatism and a New GOP Governor

Mr. Justice said he would officially change his voter registration on Friday. “I will tell you with lots of prayers and lots of thinking, today I will tell you as West Virginians that I can’t help you anymore being a Democrat governor,” he said. He imagined his mother, who has passed away, saying, “Jimmy, it’s about damn time you came to your senses.”

The governor initially received some boos from members of the crowd who seemed uncertain why he was there. But they applauded his announcement, and he quickly wrapped his arms around the president. “This man is a good man. He’s got a backbone, he’s got real ideas. He cares about us in West Virginia,” Mr. Justice said of Mr. Trump. He defended the president over the Russia investigation, saying, “Have we not heard enough about the Russians?”

After the announcement, Mr. Trump praised the governor: “Having Big Jim as a Republican is such an honor,” he said. “Fantastic man, fantastic guy.”

Mr. Justice, a billionaire coal and real estate magnate, ran as a conservative Democrat and declined to endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016. But even as West Virginia has become a reliable Republican state in presidential elections and further down the ballot, a handful of Democrats have still been able to win office.

Mr. Justice, though, is said to have friendly relationships with some members of Mr. Trump’s family. Before entering politics he gave money to officeholders in both parties while variously registering as a Republican, a Democrat and an independent.

Mr. Justice’s decision to change parties will further isolate Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat and himself a former governor.

Mr. Manchin has resisted the entreaties of Republicans to change parties and add to the two-seat Senate majority. Some Trump administration officials, eyeing Mr. Manchin’s seat, also had hoped to put him in the cabinet, but he has declined all overtures. Now he must stand for re-election in 2018 without the help of a friendly governor.

“Joe Manchin has been and always will be a proud West Virginia Democrat,” said Jonathan Kott, Mr. Manchin’s communications director. Mr. Kott said Mr. Manchin was still not interested in joining the Trump cabinet.

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In his first months as governor, Mr. Justice, a colorful and hulking figure who stands over six feet, seven inches, drew headlines beyond West Virginia’s border for bringing a plate of cow excrement into the state Capitol to express his anger at a Republican-passed budget proposal.

“What we have is nothing more than bunch of political bull you-know-what,” Mr. Justice said, pulling the lid off a silver platter to reveal the scented prop atop a printed copy of the budget. But the governor, who found his fortune with coal and now owns The Greenbrier resort, continues to be dogged by the financial issues that Republicans sought to use against him in last year’s campaign.

The state tax department has filed four liens this year against of one of Mr. Justice’s companies, Tams Management Inc., citing nearly $1 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties related to his coal mines.

Mr. Justice scaled back his television advertising campaign late in last year’s governor’s campaign, telling Democratic officials that, while wealthy on paper, he had limited liquidity, according to a Democrat involved in the conversations.

Representative Evan Jenkins, one of the Republicans seeking Mr. Manchin’s Senate seat, said he would welcome the governor to his party.

“I simply couldn’t be a part of a liberal agenda that was so contrary to who we are and what we believe in West Virginia,” said Mr. Jenkins, who switched parties several years ago.

Shaking hands with constituents earlier in the day at a meet-and-greet near the stadium where Mr. Trump was scheduled to speak, Mr. Jenkins said he would understand if Mr. Justice felt the same way.

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“If Jim Justice is the next to change his party registration to Republican, I welcome him to the Republican party,” he said.

Chris Goertler, a retired consultant from Williamstown, W.V., who was at the stadium to see Mr. Trump, said he used to be a Republican but is now “nonaffiliated.” Told of Mr. Justice’s expected announcement, Mr. Goertler shrugged and said, “I could never be a Democrat myself.”

Russell Lucas, an electrician from Kenova, W.V., who was also in line waiting to see Mr. Trump, said he would welcome Mr. Justice to the Republican Party, but added that he supported him even though he was a Democrat.

“Doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “He’s done a lot for this state already. He’s a mine owner, and I know guys that work in the mines, and all of them like him. They said he’s for the people.”

Mr. Trump repeatedly reminded the crowd of his 42-point margin of victory over Mrs. Clinton in the state. “I love your grit, your spirit,” he said. “And I love our coal miners, and they are coming back strong. The change you voted for is happening every single day.”

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