U.S. President Donald Trump sounded off over a refugee deal between the the United States and Australia during a luncheon with Harley Davidson executives at the White House on Thursday (February 2).

"A lot of people take advantage of us -- a lot of countries taking advantage of us, really terribly taking advantage of us. We had one instance in Australia have a lot of respect for Australia. I love Australia as a country, but we had a problem where for whatever reason President Obama said that they were going to take probably well over a thousand illegal immigrants who were in prisons, and they were going to bring them in take them into this country and I just said, 'why?'" Trump said.

U.S. ties with staunch ally Australia turned strained after reports of an acrimonious phone call between the two leaders emerged and Trump said a deal between the two nations on refugees was "dumb."

Under the Australia deal set with former President Barack Obama last year, the United States agreed to resettle up to 1,250 asylum seekers held in offshore processing camps on Pacific islands in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In return, Australia would resettle refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Before having lunch with the Davidson executives, a reporter asked "is military action off the table in Iran?" Trump replied "nothing is off the table."

Trump made the comment a day after his national security adviser put Tehran on "notice" following a ballistic missile test.