Turkey Reacts to Trump’s Electoral Victory

By Julian Fischer-Lhamon

Türkiye reacted relatively positively to President-elect Trump’s second electoral victory; markets rallied and President Erdogan invited Trump to visit the country and claimed to hope for a relationship reset. Cool relations between Washington and Ankara have persisted since the Trump administration when in 2018, the wrongful arrest of the American pastor Andrew Brunson led to a collapse in the value of the Turkish Lira and punitive American tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum. In 2019, in reaction to a Turkish incursion against Kurdish forces in Syria, Trump threatened to “totally destroy and obliterate” the Turkish economy. Relations strained further that year when Turkey bought Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles leading to the U.S. to cancel Lockheed-Martin F-35 fighter exports to Turkey. Despite these issues, Trump and Erdogan still had a working personal relationship. Under the Biden administration, this personal connection was lost while the divergence of national interests continued. Although President Biden originally planned to visit Turkey earlier this year, this was quietly canceled. Erdogan hopes that by personally meeting with President Trump, he can convince him to end the conflicts between Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Hamas, and Hezbollah. On this issue, the two leaders may see eye-to-eye as Trump campaigned on the promise of ending this conflict along with the Russo-Ukraine war raging to Turkey’s north. Indeed, during his victory speech, Trump promised “I’m going to stop wars.” The future looks bright for Turkish-American relations as Trump reportedly wants to withdraw U.S. troops out of northern Syria, a long-awaited goal of the Turks given the large amounts of Kurdish force they have sparred with over the years. Given a realignment of their interests, the relationship between the countries seems destined to grow, offering promising prospects for cooperation in bringing peace to that portion of the hemisphere