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

As Donald Trump makes his case for one day becoming a dictator, he asks, “Are you better off now than when I was president?” Great question! To answer that question, our Trump Files series looks at momentous events from the 45th president’s time in office that Americans may have forgotten—or wished they had.

Five years agoDonald Trump urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to go ahead and invade Syria – an unexpected capitulation to personal pressure from the Turkish strongman that upended U.S. policy and enabled Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters considered loyal allies of the USA apply.

Trump’s green light for Erdogan during a phone call on Oct. 6, 2019, forced U.S. troops in Syria to hastily flee posts near the Turkish border and shocked Washington, leading to bipartisan condemnation of the president’s decision.

The invading Turkish troops continued to show “shameful disregard for civilian life and committed serious violations and war crimes, including mass killings and unlawful attacks that killed and injured civilians,” Amnesty International charged. News reports said the invasion killed at least 70 civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

Allowing the invasion was one of several ways Trump supported Erdogan during his time in office. Trump intervened with the Justice Department to help Turkey’s national bank, Halkbank, which was accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Prosecutors argued the bank helped finance Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The case against the bank involved allies of Erdogan who approved the sanctions evasion program, a witness in the case said. Under personal pressure from Erdogan, Trump also pushed his advisers, including Justice Department officials, to drop a case against the bank set up by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to reports from former Trump administration officials.

Geoffrey Berman, then the 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, urged him to settle the case on terms favorable to Halkbank. Berman accused Barr of pressuring him to grant immunity to Turkish officials with ties to Erdogan and suggested hiding those dealings from federal court – a move that Berman said was illegal. Berman and Barr did not respond to requests for comment.

Strangely, the Turkish invasion of Syria caused problems at Halkbank. The criticism Trump faced for allowing Erdogan to invade appeared to embarrass the US president. He responded by attempting to reverse course. In a bizarre public letter, he threatened to “destroy” the Turkish economy. “Don’t be a tough guy,” Trump wrote. During that dispute, Trump and his advisers, including Barr, dropped their opposition to indicting Halkbank. Berman later recounted that Trump’s “rift” with Erdogan resulted in “the green light for the indictment of Halkbank.” And we did it within 24 hours.”

Trump’s approval of the Turkish invasion of Syria and his response to the criticism it provoked received limited attention in the 2024 election campaign. But it highlights several of Trump’s weaknesses in managing U.S. foreign policy.

Although he portrays himself as an effective negotiator, Trump has consistently accommodated autocrats during his time in office, offering concessions without gaining any advantage, former aides said. “He would interfere with the regular process of government to do something for a foreign leader,” said John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser Just in 2020. “Awaiting What? In anticipation of another favor from this person.”

Bolton wrote in a book that Trump told Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2019 that his decision to hold Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps was “exactly the right thing” and urged Xi to “continue building the camps.” At another meeting this year, Bolton wrote, Trump “begged” Xi to help Trump’s election prospects by buying U.S. soybeans and wheat. Trump apparently hoped the trade would win him votes in rural states hurt by his trade war with China.

This tendency to appease autocrats who flatter him is part of Trump’s personalization of foreign policy, a tendency to tailor diplomacy to his own interests rather than those of Americans.

Then there are the conflicts of interest. Trump admitted in late 2015 that “I have a little bit of a conflict of interest” dealing with Turkey because of his licensing deal that paid him to have his name appear on two glass towers in Istanbul. The leak of some of Trump’s tax returns in 2020 revealed that he had actually received at least $13 million from the deal, including at least $1 million during his time as president. A man who helped broker Trump’s licensing deal later lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Turkish interests.

If elected again, Trump’s business interests will lead to similar conflicts with Vietnam, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, among others. Through his family, he would also have business conflicts with Albania, Qatar, Serbia and Saudi Arabia, which contributed $87 million to a fund set up by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

It is not clear to what extent financial interests – as opposed to flattery or the desire for approval from autocrats – influence Trump. The problem is that Americans don’t know what his interests are.

But it is likely that Erdogan expects Trump to be accommodating if he wins, perhaps starting with Halkbank. A federal appeals court recently ruled that prosecutions against the bank can proceed after the bank attempted to claim sovereign immunity.

Turkish interests have allegedly spent heavily to corruptly influence New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is accused of ordering Turkey’s 36-story consulate to open despite security concerns. If Adams helped fix a fire safety problem, what could Trump do for Erdogan?