US President Donald Trump has met Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after a tense first phone call between the pair hit the headlines in January.

The men cleared the air and Trump declared that they "get along great - always have" during a meeting aboard the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York.

He said that media reports of the "terrible" call had been exaggerated but admitted the conversation shortly after his inauguration was "testy".

"They said we had a rough phone call. We didn't really have a rough phone call," Trump said in dinner remarks. "It got a little bit testy. But that's okay."

Turnbull was one of the first foreign leaders Trump spoke to after taking office on January 20, but he was unhappy that he was expected to honour Barack Obama's pledge to accept as many as 1,250 refugees held in Australian processing centres on remote Pacific islands.

Trump broke off their scheduled hour-long call after 25 minutes and later tweeted that the refugee resettlement agreement was a "dumb deal".

The two countries reconciled last month when Vice President Mike Pence visited Australia and said the US would honour the agreement out of respect for Australia.

Thursday marked Trump's first trip back to his native New York since moving into the White House in January.