One cannot help but wonder why the American president has nothing to say about Turkey’s conduct in the US-Israeli war against Iran. This is a man who has been publicly lacerating allies for failing to pull their weight in the military campaign. Yet when it comes to Turkey — a country that has done precisely nothing — not only does he stay silent, he heaps praise on the leader of an occupying power.
Just days ago, Donald Trump stood before an audience at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit in Miami and called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a “great leader.” He said it in the context of Iran. He didn’t merely mention Erdoğan in passing — he practically canonised him, thanking him for the way he had “handled” the Iran situation.
The Turks, Trump declared, had been “fantastic” — because they “stayed out of things we told them to stay out of.” He then turned to the allies who hadn’t shown up: “We helped our allies, we saw the others. We saw that other allies weren’t there. We didn’t need them, but they didn’t help us when we needed them. And that will cost them dearly.”
He said all this while Ankara was, as everyone knows, playing both sides — maintaining its studied “neutrality,” keeping a foot in every camp, exactly as it has done throughout the war in Ukraine. Why Trump consistently gives Erdoğan this kind of treatment is a question that invites a dozen competing analyses.
The explanations are not hard to find. There is the obvious temperamental affinity — two men who exercise power in remarkably similar ways. And then there is the cold strategic calculus: Washington has always found Turkey useful, its enormous army an asset worth keeping onside even when Ankara refuses to fully align with American interests.
Whatever the precise mix of motivations, one fact is beyond dispute: Donald Trump admires Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He is not saying it for the first time. He repeats it at every available opportunity.
We should be clear-eyed about what this means. There is a certain… admiration expressed by Donald Trump for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and this is evident to everyone. As a result, it is evident that, for the most part, the American side is showing tolerance toward the occupying side. And this should not be downplayed.
