Dem
47
GOP
53
And not just at Thanksgiving. Turkey, the country, is also getting a lot of love these days. The NATO summit there puts Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the spotlight. He is a strongman that Trump admires very much and is jealous of because Erdoğan is much more successful at becoming an authoritarian with no opposition than Trump is.
During the two-day lovefest, Trump let it be known that Turkey is a better ally than any of the European countries. He also said: "If you could have seen the respect and the love in the room, and it's love really for the country, for our country. But they do, they like the job I'm doing. They said: 'We love, sir, we love you.'"
Now, it is possible that they did actually say that because they know they have to treat him like a spoiled toddler with a gun. But all of them actually think he is a moron. They just have to keep that to themselves.
Erdoğan did such a good job of licking Trump's... boots, that Trump said he would consider selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, something Erdoğan has long wanted. Many members of Congress do not want that, so a deal is by no means certain. Members of Congress are unhappy with Erdoğan's close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdoğan's purchasing the Russian S-400 air defense system. They are also concerned that Erdoğan could use the S-400 to collect vital information about the F-35s and then pass it on to Putin. In response to Trump's proposal, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tweeted: "I hope this is wrong." That doesn't sound like a "yes" vote to us.
Meanwhile, the European NATO countries are also courting Erdoğan. They are well aware that Turkey, which has a population of 88 million, more than any European country other than Russia, has the second biggest army in Europe, again after Russia. It also has a large and well-respected defense industry that makes tanks, warships, missiles and drones. And it is a member of NATO. As the European NATO countries are preparing for a NATO without the U.S., Turkey becomes a real possibility as an arms supplier and defense partner. There is some potential here, since each side has something the other wants. Europe wants Turkish weapons and Turkey wants to be a member in the European Union, something the far-right European parties are fanatically against. They envision millions of Muslims flooding Christian Europe and will do everything they can to prevent it.
Another problem is Greece, which is not especially keen on Turkey, especially after Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in 1974. As a consequence, Europe in not united in its approach to Turkey. Bilateral deals are being made with Turkey, but there is no grand European "Turkish strategy." On top of this, Turkey is no longer a functioning democracy, which rankles all the European leaders. But given a choice between Trump and Erdoğan, more and more of the leaders consider Erdoğan the lesser of two evils and are willing to work with him and do business with him.
This creates another internal conflict. Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, has a plan to keep the U.S. in NATO. His plan is placate Trump by telling him that all the NATO members are going to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP, such as he ordered, and will spend all that money on American weapons—provided the U.S. stays in NATO and honors its commitments. Obviously, this is in conflict with the alternative plan of buying weapons from Turkey in the short run and building up home-grown defense companies in the long run. It will take some time for this to get sorted out. (V)