“My friend from Turkey is a tough nut to crack. Don’t mess with him—he’s tough. He’s a fantastic guy.” The… advice of U.S. President Donald Trump to the Middle Eastern leaders he met with on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, regarding his Turkish counterpart, were something quite common for the two of them.
Perhaps that is why Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as Trump pointed at him and showered him with… strange praise, made his characteristic gesture of a heartfelt “thank you” with his hand on his chest. And let analysts doubt whether he understood what Trump was saying, since he knows only the absolute basics of the English language…
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The key point, however, is that the Turkish leader, once again… was fed up with empty words. Trump used his classic style of flattery (“my friend,” “he’s a great guy,” “a tough cookie,” “perfect,” “a fantastic guy”), but in practice he wasn’t exactly polite to Mr. Erdoğan.
Trump on Erdogan:
My friend from Türkiye, he’s a tough cookie. Don’t mess around with him, he’s tough.
AdvertisementHe’s a fantastic guy. pic.twitter.com/Z6rsBUBH4c
— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 22, 2026
Not only because he didn’t find time for a one-on-one meeting, but also because he didn’t bring any of the “gifts” he had promised, unlike the Turkish president, who didn’t go empty-handed (as he announced the purchase of Boeing aircraft by Turkish Airlines).
The truth is that not even the most dogmatic and blinkered fanatics in the Erdogan government expected Trump to announce anything in New York regarding Turkey’s reinstatement in theF-35 program, or to “unlock” the sale of jet engines that would transform the KAAAN from a display model into a combat aircraft.
Moreover, there is a domestic “front” that prevents him from circumventing the CAATSA sanctions regarding Turkey’s purchase and use of the Russian S-400 system.
And Erdogan, of course, would be reluctant to declare that… he is abandoning the Russian missile system and that Turkey will store it or hand it over to another country (which would require the consent of Russian President Vladimir Putin). Thus, the two of them apparently preferred to leave the “hot-button” issues out of the talks, with Trump adopting the “out of sight, out of mind” approach.
Outside the House of Turkey in New York, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barak, was trying to “sugarcoat the pill” by using the same rhetorical tactics. He said that “as leaders, they have incredible respect for one another, but, even more importantly, there is harmony between them.”
He also said that Turkey “is a good friend of the U.S.,” but that “we need time for CAATSA” and the sanctions that exclude Turkey from the F-35 program. And when pressed to explain why they hadn’t held a bilateral meeting, he was forced to say, in essence, that “the two of them speak often, and there wasn’t much new to discuss.”
The Turkish president, however, was much more courteous in practice.
“My dear friend” was the phrase he used to refer to Trump during an event in New York marking a century of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Turkey. But it wasn’t just words. Standing in front of a striking Turkish Airlines poster, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was present at the signing of an agreement for Turkey’s national carrier to order up to 150 737 MAX aircraft from the American aerospace company Boeing.
The agreement calls for an order of 100 Boeing 737-8 aircraft, with an option for an additional 50 aircraft from the Boeing 737 MAX family.
Of course, Mr. Erdoğan would prefer to personally sign off on the purchase of aircraft—but not politicians—the much-coveted 5th-generation F-35 fighter jets, or “at the very least” the purchase of General Electric engines. The latter issue—the jet engines that could power the Turkish Kaan fighter jet—is also a “hot” topic.
Donald Trump had promised to bypass Congress and sell Turkey dozens of engines, worth $700 million, last June, but this, too, has been “blocked” by Democratic lawmakers, with the delivery of the first of these engines expected to take “several more years, unless Ankara gets rid of the S-400s tomorrow and radically changes its course and policy toward Israel and Greece”—something that does not seem feasible.
And so, the KAAAN remains without engines, as Trump holds Erdogan in high regard but has his “hands tied” by Democratic lawmakers who are proving to be… “tough nuts to crack”…
Source: Proto Thema
