Did you know? The Patriot Post is funded 100% by its readers. Help us stay front and center in the fight for Liberty and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign.

November 14, 2019

Trump Strengthens Relations With Turkey

The president says that Turkey and the U.S. will be developing a big trade deal.

In a gesture that lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle argued against, President Donald Trump followed through on his invitation and met with Turkish President Recep Erdogan at the White House on Wednesday. Last Friday, lawmakers sent a letter to Trump stating, “President Erdogan’s decision to invade northern Syria on October 9 has had disastrous consequences for U.S. national security, has led to deep divisions in the NATO alliance, and caused a humanitarian crisis on the ground. Given this situation, we believe that now is a particularly inappropriate time for President Erdogan to visit the United States, and we urge you to rescind this invitation.”

Trump’s controversial decision to pull a small number of U.S. troops out of northern Syria, allowing for Turkish forces to move in against Kurdish forces (U.S. allies) in the region, brought condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans. A temporary ceasefire ending the bloodshed was agreed to following Vice President Mike Pence’s meeting with Turkish leadership — a meeting that also resulted in lifting the economic sanctions Trump had imposed. All in all, Trump’s poor explanation for his complicated decision opened him up for plenty of legitimate criticism.

That said, Trump clearly has a more developed strategy behind what publicly appeared to many as little more than a sudden decision aimed at fulfilling a campaign promise of getting our troops out of the Middle East. That fact is demonstrated by the successful U.S. Special Forces mission to take out ISIS founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — a mission that required the use of Turkish airspace.

Furthermore, Trump correctly realizes that the greatest threat to our national security is a nuclear-capable Iran, and U.S. bases in Turkey are essential to preventing this from occurring. This reality has been made all the more clear with Iran’s recent announcement that it is ramping up efforts to enrich uranium in defiance of the nuclear deal it never followed in the first place. So, now is not the time to heighten tensions with our NATO ally.

Trump is clearly a big believer in “Bucks over Bombs.” He sees dollar diplomacy as the best way to convince Erdogan that it’s in his best interests to work with the U.S. This explains Trump’s comments following the White House meeting: “Frankly, we’re going to be expanding our trade relationship very significantly.” Using the promise of mutual economic opportunity, Trump hopes to develop a better relationship with Erdogan in order to counter Russian efforts to draw Turkey away from NATO and the U.S.

On a final note, Trump was also able to secure a promise from Erdogan to stop persecuting minority religious groups, especially Christians. “We’ll see that their sanctuaries are getting revived and their churches will be reconstructed so that they can go back and start praying again,” Erdogan declared. But as the saying goes, talk is cheap, especially with a dictator like Erdogan. We’ll have to wait and see if he actually follows through.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.