Trump turned a simple conflict-of-interest question into a schoolyard spat threatening to "tell on" a journo to Australias Prime Minister, writesVince Hooper. IT TAKES A CERTAIN theatre of the absurd to transform a routine White House press gaggle into a diplomatic sideshow. From his first term to his second, Trump has cast journalists asenemiesrather than interlocutors. By claiming that the ABC reporter was hurting Australia, Trump implied that the act of pressing a leader for clarity was somehow an attack on his allies themselves. Trump stands almost alone in converting a press query into a matter of international loyalty.