By | July 9, 2026
President Donald J. Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, White House, Public domain
Donald Trump has often proclaimed his admiration for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom he says he has “a very good relationship.” He hasn’t a bad word to say for Erdogan, whom he has called “a strong man,” a “hell of a leader,” a “great leader, a “good friend.” He has also called him an “extraordinary leader” and a “tough cookie.”
You know — the kind of guy Trump likes, just because he is tough. It’s the same reason that explains his admiration for Vladimir Putin. Apparently Trump does not know or care that two years ago, Erdogan predicted that there might be a war “between the Crescent and the Cross,” and he left no doubt as to which side he would be on. And Erdogan has also floated the idea of creating a pan-Islamic military force strong enough to destroy the Jewish state, again hinting that Turkey would take the leading role.
More on the U.S. and other NATO members courting Erdogan can be found here: “Turkey’s Erdogan is waging war on the West and Israel – NATO must not ignore it – opinion,” by David M. Weinberg, Jerusalem Post, July 4, 2026:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to host NATO leaders in Ankara next week. Unbelievably, American and European leaders are revving up their engines to coddle, cradle, and embrace this radical, antisemitic, viciously anti-Western and anti-Israeli dictator.
Washington just announced that it will ship 80 engines to Ankara, worth more than $700 million for Turkey’s homegrown fighter jet, and it is positively considering letting Turkey back into the F-35 jet program (from which it was expelled in 2019 over its purchases of Russian S-400 air defense systems).
It is madness to allow Erdogan to buy our top-of-the-line F-35 stealth fighter jet. The same reason Turkey was not allowed in 2019 to buy that plane was the fear that, with Turkey having bought the Russian S-400 air defense system, operating that Russian system alongside a Western stealth aircraft posed severe security risks; the Americans feared that the S-400 could collect and transmit sensitive F-35 data to Russia. For some reason, Trump no longer worries about that — perhaps he feels he can trust his “good friend,” that “extraordinary leader” President Erdogan. Fortunately, there is strong opposition in the Senate, from both Republicans and Democrats, and they are likely to stop that sale.
The EU is begging Turkey for a series of major economic and energy contracts, including central Turkish roles in overland energy networks that will bypass the Arabian [Persian] Gulf, Russia, and Israel….
Why should oil from the Gulf be sent overland, through Turkey, to Europe? If Iran can shut the Strait of Hormuz, can’t Erdogan shut that trans-Turkish pipeline to make the West bend to its will by, for example, severing military ties with Israel? There is an alternative route for oil from the Persian Gulf — pipelines from the Gulf across Saudi Arabia, up through Jordan, and then to Israel’s port of Haifa, where the oil could then be loaded onto ships for Europe.
His fiery language and aggressive actions (including expansion into Syria, Iraq, and across the eastern Mediterranean) drive toward a Turkish-led regional order with clearly expressed Ottoman and Islamist-jihadist aspirations….
Turkish troops are now in both Syria and Iraq, possibly permanently. They are there to hold the local Kurds in check militarily. Erdogan is determined to crush Kurds outside of Turkey so that they will have no chance to link up with separatist Kurdish forces in Anatolia. The spread of Turkish forces into two Arab states appeals to those Turkish irredentists who dream of renewing the Ottoman Empire, strong enough to challenge the Western powers.
The larger plan is to replace NATO with a Muslim version of that alliance would first consist of a triumvirate of Muslim states — Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan. And from that kernel, Erdogan hopes to expand that alliance through the adhesion of many more Muslim states. The Trump administration, oblivious to Erdogan’s plan, proposes to provide his military with the Stealth F-35.
Just this week, he repeated the wild claim that the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey was organized by “the genocidal, occupying, and expansionist ideology called Zionism.”
The failed coup attempt in 2016 that Turks opposed to Erdogan’s re-Islamizing policies mounted was a purely homegrown affair; Israel had nothing to do with it. But that hasn’t stopped Erdogan, who sees the Jews behind every misfortune, of accusing them of somehow infiltrating the Turkish army’s officer corps and fomenting the coup that Erdogan quickly crushed.
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