Trump told Turkish dictator he might invade Syria. Dozens of civilians died. – Mother Jones

Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2019Illustration by Mother Jones; Peter Nicholls/AFP/Getty

As Donald Trump campaigns to become a dictator for one day, he asks: Are you in a better situation now than when I was president? Excellent question! To help answer that, our Trump Files series looks at events following the 45th president's tenure that Americans might have forgotten or wished they had.

five years agoDonald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan go move forward and invade Syria, an unexpected capitulation to personal pressure from the Turkish strongman who upended U.S. policy, authorizing Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters seen as staunch U.S. allies.

Trump's green light to Erdogan in an October 6, 2019 phone call forced U.S. troops in Syria to hurry flee from posts near the Turkish border and shocked Washington, drawing bipartisan conviction of the president's decision.

The invading Turkish troops showed a “shameful disregard for civilian life, engaging in serious violations and war crimes, including summary executions and unlawful attacks that killed and injured civilians,” said Amnesty International. charge. News reports said at least 70 civilians were killed while hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the invasion.

The authorization to invade was one of several ways that Trump helped Erdogan during his term. Trump intervened with the Justice Department to help a Turkish national bank, Halkbank, accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Prosecutors to have argued the bank helped finance Iran's nuclear weapons program. The case against the bank involved Erdogan's allies, who authorized the sanctions evasion plan, a witness in the case. said. Under personal pressure from Erdogan, so does Trump press his advisers, including DOJ officials, to drop charges against the bank built by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to has accounts former Trump administration officials.

Geoffrey Berman, then U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, later said in a book that he received pressure from Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker in 2018 and that Whitaker's successor, Bill Barr, pressed him to settle the matter on terms favorable to Halkbank. Berman accused Barr of urging him to grant immunity to Turkish officials with ties to Erdogan and suggested hiding those deals from a federal court, a move Berman said would be illegal. Berman and Barr did not respond to requests for comment.

Interestingly, Turkey's invasion of Syria caused problems for Halkbank. The criticism Trump faced for authorizing Erdogan's invasion appeared to embarrass the US president. He responded by trying to backpedal. In a weird public letterhe threatened to destroy the Turkish economy. Don't be a tough guy, Trump wrote. During that dispute, Trump and his advisers, including Barr, abandoned their opposition to Halkbank's indictment. Berman later tell that the falling out between Trump and Erdogan gave the green light to the indictment of Halkbank. And we did it in 24 hours.

Trump's approval of Turkey's invasion of Syria and his response to criticism of it have received limited attention during the 2024 campaign. But it highlights several of Trump's weaknesses in the management of American foreign policy.

Although he presents himself as an effective negotiator, Trump, in power, has always adapted autocratsoffering concessions without securing concomitant benefits, former aides said. He would interfere with the regular government process to do something to benefit a foreign leader, said John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser. Times in 2020. In anticipation of what? Waiting for another favor from this person later.

Bolt wrote in a book in which Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019 that his decision to detain Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps was exactly the right thing to do and urged Xi to “continue building the camps.” At another meeting that year, Bolton wrote: Trump “pleaded» with Xi to help Trump's electoral prospects by purchasing American soybeans and wheat. Trump apparently hoped the trade would help him win votes in rural states affected by his trade war with China.

This tendency to appease autocrats who flatter him is part of the personalization of Trump's foreign policy, a tendency to make diplomacy one focused on his own interests rather than those of Americans.

Then there are conflicts of interest. Trump, in late 2015, acknowledged that “I have a little conflict of interest” in my dealings with Turkey, due to its licensing agreement that allowed him to pay for his name to appear on two glass towers in Istanbul. The 2020 flee Some of Trump's tax returns revealed that he actually received at least $13 million, including at least $1 million while he was president, from the deal. A man who helped negotiate Trump's licensing deal later lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Turkish interests.

If re-elected, Trump's business interests will result in similar conflicts with Vietnam, Omanand the United Arab Emiratesamong others. Through his family, he also reportedly has business conflicts with Albania, Qatar, Serbia and Saudi Arabia, which has paid $87 million to a fund created by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

It is not clear to what extent financial interests, as opposed to flattery or autocrats' desire for approval, influence Trump. The problem is that the Americans do not know what its interests are.

But Erdogan is likely to expect Trump to be dovish if he wins, perhaps starting with Halkbank. A federal appeals court recently ruled that lawsuits against banks may continue, following banks' efforts to claim sovereign immunity.

Turkish interests allegedly spent heavily to corruptly influence New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is accused of ordering that the 36-story Turkish consulate be allowed to open despite security concerns. If Adams Helped Fix a Fire Code Problem, What Could Trump Do for Erdogan?