In his 2017 and 2025 inaugural addresses, President Donald Trump pledged to “Put America first.”
His 2017-2021 term, however, put Turkey and Turkish President Erdogan first. And his second term is looking even worse.
In Trump’s Turkish Problem (2022), I cautioned the would-be candidate to “ditch his Turkish investments, Turkish-tainted cronies, and Turkish fixation … in his and America’s best interests.”
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Besides being nakedly corrupt and repressive, Turkey’s rogue regime has cozied up to Moscow and supported ISIS, al-Qaeda offshoot Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and other terrorist organizations.
Hardly a day goes by when Erdogan isn’t throwing a temper tantrum, concocting outlandish demands, or threatening NATO members.
Yet somehow Trump’s a “big fan” of Turkey’s president. Erdogan “does things the right way.”
Corruption, repression, incessant threats, and supporting terrorism are “the right way”?
I’m “very close to [Erdogan],” Trump once declared. Way too close, actually.
His flattery of Erdogan has been a national embarrassment and has accomplished nothing.
Unfortunately, Trump admits to liking “tough guy” foreign leaders. That is, unsavory autocrats such as Erdogan.
Erdogan’s “tough, but I get along with him. And maybe that’s a bad thing, but I think it’s a really good thing.” And you thought Pres. Biden was confused.
All American presidents and top European leaders have for decades let Turkey intimidate them. Consequently, they’ve needlessly kowtowed to Turkey. But Trump takes the cake.
How contrary to American interests — and humiliating — was Trump’s Turkish record in his first term?
And no, I’m not a Trump hater.
Trump’s Terrible Turkish Resumé, in Brief
- Trump’s Conflicts of Interest and Turkish Agents
Trump’s self-acknowledged “little conflict of interest” regarding Turkey isn’t little.
Istanbul’s Trump Towers/Mall naming rights, for instance, have yielded him $10+ million.
Mehmet Ali Yalcindag, Trump’s partner in that venture, chaired the Turkey-U.S. Business Council (TAIK).
Yalcindag brokered contacts between Berat Albayrak (Erdogan’s corruption-riddled son-in-law) and Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law/Middle East adviser).
TAIK employed (2013-2020) DC’s Mercury Public Affairs as its registered Turkish agent. Mercury also hired Trump’s communications sage, Bryan Lanza, to represent Ankara.
Another Turkish agent: Ballard Partners, headed by top Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard. It maintains an Istanbul office.
Trump even engaged Turkish designer Dorya Int’l to manufacture the “ultra-luxe” Trump Home® line.
- Trump’s Silence after Erdogan’s Capital Rampage
After his White House meeting on May 16, 2017, Erdogan ordered his bodyguards to attack peaceful protesters outside his ambassador’s residence.
The mostly American demonstrators were bloodied. A number were hospitalized, and a policeman was injured. Elsewhere in DC, Erdogan’s retinue pummeled several U.S. Secret Service officers.
Yet the administration permitted Erdogan and his thugs to immediately return to Turkey.
Though the U.S. House demanded prosecutions, only in August did the Department of Justice charge Erdogan’s bodyguards.
But the DOJ then shamelessly dropped the charges one day before Secretary of State Tillerson visited Ankara in 2018.
Silent throughout it all, Trump favored Erdogan’s long-lawless louts over peaceful Americans and the Secret Service.
Trump acted dishonorably and against America.
- Trump Jr.’s Turkey Trot
Following his father’s 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. flew off to Turkey to hunt “wild goats.”
Yalcindag reportedly chaperoned him.
Scurrying off post-election to bag goats in a rogue, ISIS-supporting country exemplifies the Trump family’s Turkish blind spot.
- Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and Turkish Corruption
Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani was a longtime Trump friend/surrogate and, in 2017, his cybersecurity adviser.
Giuliani worked at the Greenberg Traurig law firm from 2016 to 2018. It registered as a Turkish agent from 2017 to 2020.
In 2016, the DOJ indicted Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold dealer, for using Turkey’s Halkbank to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. Halkbank — controlled by Erdogan — was/is a DOJ target too.
In 2017, Giuliani represented Zarrab in a meeting with Erdogan and pressured the DOJ to grant Erdogan’s wish to release Zarrab.
Trump solicited Sec. Tillerson to persuade the DOJ to scrap the Zarrab case. Tillerson refused.
The president also reportedly asked Attorney General Bill Barr to go easy on Halkbank.
Trump’s advocating for Zarrab/Halkbank, and allowing Giuliani to represent Zarrab while the DOJ was prosecuting him and Halkbank, were unethical.
The president put Turkey, not America, first.
- Trump Chooses Erdogan over U.S. Law and the Pentagon
Congress’ 2017 CAATSA law requires America to penalize those doing business with Russia’s defense industry. Having bought Russian S-400 missiles, Turkey’s been an obvious offender.
S-400s can spy on America’s F-35 jet technology. Consequently, the Pentagon had insisted on removing Turkey from the F-35 program.
Only in mid-2019, however, and after repeatedly making excuses for Erdogan, did Trump forbid Ankara from acquiring F-35s.
Moreover, he ignored CAATSA until late 2020 when he reluctantly penalized Turkey over its S-400s.
Choosing Erdogan over U.S. law and the Pentagon compromised American security.
America came in second, behind Turkey.
- National Security Advisor Michael Flynn‘s Turkish Escapades
Then-retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn advised Trump’s 2016 campaign and became Trump’s first National Security Advisor (NSA).
Flynn lasted just 22 days as NSA because he’d lied to VP Pence and the FBI about his conversations (December 2016) with Russian Ambassador Kislyak.
On July 15, 2016, Flynn publicly supported the attempted coup against Erdogan.
Yet, on November 8, 2016 (election day), Flynn publicly defended Erdogan by railing against alleged coup plotter Fethullah Gulen, the expatriate, Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric.
The probable reason for Flynn’s U-turn?
In the summer/fall of 2016, the Flynn Intel Group was paid $530,000 by TAIK Chair Kamil Ekim Alptekin to support Turkish interests. Though Alptekin was indicted as a Turkish agent in 2018, charges were later withdrawn.
Flynn registered retroactively as a Turkish agent in March of 2017.
Did Trump tap Flynn as NSA because of the latter’s ties to Turkey, TAIK, and Alptekin? It seems likely.
Trump pardoned (my “Great Honor”) lying Turkish agent Mike Flynn in late 2020.
- Trump Endorsed Turkish Citizen Dr. Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate
Dr. Mehmet Oz once hosted a popular TV show and holds dual Turkish-U.S. citizenship. He ran in Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate GOP primary.
Oz is liberal to moderate on abortion, gun control, and LGBTQ.
Oddly, though, Trump endorsed the carpet-bagging Oz over opponents Kathy Barnette (conservative) and Dave McCormick (moderate to conservative).
Trump had previously endorsed conservative Sean Parnell. When Parnell dropped out, Oz dropped in.
The American-born Oz served in the Turkish Armed Forces and voted in Turkey’s 2018 election.
Oz’s campaign disclosure omitted his New Jersey condominium, occupied by controversial Turkish nationalists.
Trump’s ex-Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, wanted Oz to explain the “scope and the depth of his relationship with the Turkish government.”
Oz, a favorite of Melania Trump, later lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
Did Trump endorse Oz because of their mutual reverence for Turkey?
- Trump Betrayed America’s Anti-ISIS Kurdish Partners
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) remains an American partner after having sustained 11,000+ casualties fighting ISIS.
The SDF consists mainly of the Kurdish YPG. The rest are mixed, anti-ISIS Syrian militias.
Erdogan asserts that the YPG is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization. However, Turkey itself sponsors ISIS, HTS, and other terrorists.
On October 6, 2019, Trump alerted Erdogan that American troops were withdrawing from the SDF’s stronghold. Trump thereby greenlighted Turkey’s assault on SDF just days later.
Turkey killed hundreds of SDF fighters and displaced at least 160,000 civilians, including Christians. And hundreds of ISIS members escaped SDF prisons.
Yet Trump recently claimed, disingenuously, that he “saved a lot of lives.”
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Voting 354 to 60, the U.S. House rebuked the administration and Ankara.
Trump rationalized betraying Kurds: “They didn’t help us in WWII [and] Normandy.”
The remark was over-the-top, historically ill-informed. Turks may have fed Trump that nonsense. Ankara, incidentally, was pro-Nazi during WWII.
Abandoning the SDF damaged America’s “credibility and reliability,” warned retired U.S. General Joseph Votel.
During Turkey’s attack, Trump dashed off an amateurish letter telling Erdogan to “work out a deal.” Wrote Trump to his top tough guy, “Don’t be a tough guy.”
The letter was widely mocked — an “embarrassment,” “joke,” “prank,” “bizarre,” “nutty” — even by Republicans.
Despite Erdogan’s invasion and 2017 DC thuggery, the White House hosted him in 2019. Erdogan insulted Trump by handing him back the letter.
No, Trump didn’t put Turkey first every time.
In 2018, he eventually forced the release of American Pastor Andrew Brunson, abused and imprisoned by Erdogan on phony charges.
But that happened only because conservative Evangelical Christians pressured Trump.
