After a shaky start to their relationship, US President Donald Trump gave Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull a telescope worth $1,500 as a gift to smooth things over. The gifting of the telescope came just a few days after the American leader announced that he would be cutting nasa’s funding and also shutting down the development of a new space telescope called WFIRST.
According to Australian financial documents that have been published earlier today, Turnbull has not only decided to keep the telescope that Trump gave him as a gift, but has also paid $891.23 out of his own money back into the public fund in order to keep it as a personal possession.
It was a diplomatic gift from one country to another, so if the Australian PM hadn’t paid back his fair share into the public’s pocket, it wouldn’t be very fair to keep it just for himself.
Turnbull gave the Trumps a new pair of boots each
One of Turnbull’s spokespeople has announced that this exchange of gifts took place earlier this year in February, when the Australian leader visited Washington. In return for the telescope, Turnbull gave Trump and his wife, First Lady Melania, each their own pair of new RM Williams boots, which are each worth a cool $545.
