{"id":1180,"date":"2026-07-07T14:48:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1180"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:48:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T09:48:31","slug":"everything-ive-ever-asked-him-for-hes-done-erdogan-takes-the-stage-as-natos-trump-whisperer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1180","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everything I\u2019ve ever asked him for, he\u2019s done\u2019: Erdo\u011fan takes the stage as NATO\u2019s Trump whisperer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/e3\/27\/8ac4fe3a45f582d5dfc9230d8e7d\/messerly-lede.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Thirty-one NATO leaders need President Donald Trump to show up to their Turkey summit.<\/p>\n<p>One is getting him there.<\/p>\n<p>When Trump lands in Ankara on Tuesday, he&#8217;ll be a guest of the NATO ally with whom he shares the most natural kinship: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan. The two men share a distrust of European liberalism, a disdain for institutional processes and a belief that the world bends for those willing to act.<\/p>\n<p>But the relationship, those familiar with it say, is built on something more durable than affinity \u2014 a decade-long track record of where Trump asks and Erdo\u011fan delivers. It\u2019s a notable contrast with other leaders, including some of America\u2019s closest historical allies, who Trump has often chided as weak and unhelpful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just a similar worldview. The German world is \u2018Macher\u2019 \u2014 people who do things rather than talk, and have commissions and debates \u2014 and he sees Erdo\u011fan that way,\u201d said James Jeffrey, ambassador to Turkey during the George W. Bush administration and the U.S. special representative for Syria engagement in the first Trump administration. \u201cBut he also gets real things done with him because Erdo\u011fan is very transactional. Trump is very transactional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Trump in 2018 sanctioned Turkey&#8217;s defense sector and threatened to collapse its economy over the detention of an American pastor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/white-house\/secret-deal-turkey-paves-way-american-pastor-s-release-n919041\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Erdo\u011fan released him<\/u><\/a>. When Turkish troops massed on the Syrian border in 2019 and a military confrontation with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces seemed imminent, Erdo\u011fan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/10\/17\/us-and-turkey-agree-to-cease-fire-in-syria-vice-president-mike-pence-announces.html\" target=\"_blank\"><u>agreed to a ceasefire<\/u><\/a> brokered by top Trump officials. When Trump last year launched his Gaza peace board, Erdo\u011fan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/1\/17\/trump-asks-turkiyes-erdogan-egypts-el-sisi-to-join-gaza-board-of\" target=\"_blank\"><u>signed on immediately<\/u><\/a>, lending an air of credibility with Middle East leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Those actions built an unusual trust between Erdo\u011fan and Trump, with the U.S. president claiming the Turkish leader is the only reason he\u2019s even attending the summit, even as White House officials concede he likely would have gone anyway. Speaking to reporters in an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month, Trump called Erdo\u011fan a \u201cfriend\u201d and \u201ca respected man and respected leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, he added, \u201ceverything I&#8217;ve ever asked him for, he&#8217;s done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a dynamic that has turned what could be a NATO liability \u2014 an autocrat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/nato-allies-have-grown-silent-rights-concerns-turkey-2026-07-01\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>credibly accused of dismantling<\/u><\/a> Turkish democracy \u2014 into an asset for the alliance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe optics of that transforms Erdo\u011fan and Turkey from being the Trojan horse within NATO to the savior of NATO,\u201d said Gonul Tol, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who focuses on Turkish politics.<\/p>\n<p>The role has taken on an added significance in the wake of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/donald-trump-giorgia-meloni-g7-photo\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>a falling out between Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni over a disputed photo<\/u><\/a> after last month\u2019s G7 summit in France. The feud has sidelined Meloni, who had once been called Europe\u2019s \u201cTrump whisperer,\u201d leaving a vacuum Erdo\u011fan is well-positioned to fill.<\/p>\n<p>Inside NATO, there is relief that Turkey is hosting the annual summit following the repeated disputes between Trump and western European allies. Trump is unlikely to want to embarrass Erdo\u011fan, two NATO diplomats said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErdo\u011fan has a very good relationship with President Trump\u201d and that plays a \u201chugely important role\u201d said a third senior NATO diplomat. \u201cI can name a number of European countries that if the summit was there, Trump might not be there but because it\u2019s Erdo\u011fan \u2014 he will be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>White House spokesperson Anna Kelly described Erdogan as an \u201cincredible partner in the region\u201d and described the two men as having a \u201cgreat relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe President looks forward to traveling to Ankara this week for the NATO Summit, which will include a bilateral meeting with President Erdogan,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish embassy in Washington and Turkey\u2019s presidential office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Erdo\u011fan remains an uncomfortable peacekeeper for much of NATO. At home, he has spent the last year methodically dismantling what remains of Turkey\u2019s political opposition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c204ymjnn80o\" target=\"_blank\"><u>jailing Istanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu<\/u><\/a> and deploying riot police to storm the headquarters of the country\u2019s main opposition party. Ahead of the summit, Turkish authorities detained roughly 200 people planning to protest NATO&#8217;s presence in Ankara, and the country is under fire for denying press credentials to Turkish journalists.<\/p>\n<p>He also maintains an open line of communication with Moscow even as European allies demand a harder line on Russia. Europe doesn\u2019t love any of it \u2014 and yet Erdo\u011fan is the one they\u2019re counting on to pull off the summit without any major blow-ups or diplomatic faux pas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Europeans think that with Erdo\u011fan there, maybe they&#8217;ll be spared the scolding and criticism and humiliation, and that Trump will actually allow this to be sort of a normal NATO summit, not one with scandal and headline-grabbing humiliation,\u201d said Asli Aydintasbas, director of the Turkey Project at the Brookings Institution.<\/p>\n<p>What appalls Europe about Erdo\u011fan doesn\u2019t appear to bother Trump, who sees the relationship in pragmatic terms and himself maintains an open line of communication with the Russian president.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president has come to the conclusion that, like with many relationships that are difficult or potentially adversarial, one of the best ways to manage that is by having a cordial and friendly relationship with a difficult leader, so that he can potentially have more leverage to influence,\u201d said Alex Gray, a former NSC official in Trump\u2019s first term. \u201cIt\u2019s better to be on the inside \u2014 able to make strong and pointed criticism from the inside, from a position of credibility \u2014 than it is to be on the outside having no access and no leverage and just having a totally adversarial personal relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A senior White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the Trump-Erdo\u011fan relationship, described Trump saying he was going for Erdo\u011fan as the president \u201ctrying to be nice,\u201d adding that the president \u201cwas always planning on going.\u201d The official also described the idea that the Trump-Erdo\u011fan relationship would prevent any blowups as \u201ca fruitful idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe beauty of the president is he does what he wants. I don\u2019t think anyone can predict what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d said the official, conceding that Trump and Erdo\u011fan do have a good relationship and that\u2019s \u201cnot nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erdo\u011fan, meanwhile, has been choreographing his role as a bridge not just within NATO but between East and West. In the days before the summit, he announced that he had invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Ankara, positioning Turkey, not Brussels or Washington, as the connector between NATO and a reordered Middle East. And in a speech Monday, Erdo\u011fan called for an &#8220;unconditional&#8221; security network stretching &#8220;from Texas to Ankara.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This summit is the kind of thing Erdo\u011fan lives for and dreams [of]. He, like President Trump, very much prizes the sense \u2014 the performative, the presentational sense \u2014 that he is more than the president of Turkey. He is the leader of the Muslim world. He is the key interlocutor between North and South, East and West, the inheritor not of Ataturk but of the Ottoman sultans,\u201d said one former senior administration official who served in both the first Trump and Biden administrations, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the bilateral relationship. \u201cThis is a role history and destiny have granted him, and no one else in the world has this kind of presentational ability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For all the good vibes between Erdo\u011fan and Trump, the one thing the Turkish president wants most heading into the summit remains out of reach. The countries have not been able to broker an arrangement that would allow Turkey to take possession of the F-35s it ordered nearly two decades ago. The sale has been blocked because of Turkey\u2019s purchase of Russia&#8217;s S-400 missile defense system.<\/p>\n<p>In the Oval Office last month, Trump deferred questions about the F-35 to Vice President JD Vance, who said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth &#8220;and the entire team are reviewing this right now.\u201d In the meantime, the U.S. appears to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/us-move-forward-with-turkey-jet-engine-sales-ahead-nato-summit-sources-say-2026-06-24\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>moving ahead<\/u><\/a> with a $700 million jet engine sale to Turkey \u2014 still a controversial move among some lawmakers, but far less fraught than the F-35 question.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the lowest hanging fruit from the Trump administration\u2019s point of view compared to these other big promises,\u201d Tol said.<\/p>\n<p>Yet for all of Erdo\u011fan&#8217;s careful cultivation, the relationship rests on a foundation that even its closest observers acknowledge is inherently unstable. Trump has upended relationships with theoretically more reliable allies over even momentary provocations, and Erdo\u011fan has shown throughout his career that he is not above dramatic reversals when his political interests demand them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoth are known to be volatile,\u201d Jeffrey said, \u201cso one cannot predict the details of the dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>Victor Jack contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty-one NATO leaders need President Donald Trump to show up to their Turkey summit. One is getting him there. When Trump lands in Ankara on Tuesday, he&#8217;ll be a guest of the NATO ally with whom he shares the most natural kinship: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan. The two men share a distrust of European&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.politico.com\/e3\/27\/8ac4fe3a45f582d5dfc9230d8e7d\/messerly-lede.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}