Trump’s
bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’
President
vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but
brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion
Vivian Ho
and agencies
Thu 17 Oct
2019 02.57 BSTFirst published on Thu 17 Oct 2019 00.53 BST
Donald
Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said
history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day
Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.
The letter,
first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and
began with an outright threat.
“Let’s work
out a good deal!” Trump wrote in the letter dated 9 October, whose authenticity
was confirmed to various news outlets by the White House.
Trish Regan
✔
@trish_regan
EXCLUSIVE:
I have obtained a copy of @realDonaldTrump’s letter to
#Erdogan. @POTUS warns him to not “be a tough guy!
Don’t be a fool!” Says he could destroy Turkey’s economy if
#Syria is not resolved in a humane way. Details tonight at 8pm #TrishRegan
#FoxBusiness
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Days after
appearing to greenlight an invasion by pulling US troops from the
Kurdish-dominated region, Trump told the Turkish president he would wreck
Ankara’s economy if the invasion went too far.
“You don’t
want to be responsible for slaughtering thousands of people, and I don’t want
to be responsible for destroying the Turkish economy – and I will,” he wrote.
“History
will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way,”
Trump continued. “It will look upon you forever as the devil if good things
don’t happen.”
“Don’t be a
tough guy. Don’t be a fool!” he finished, adding: “I will call you later.”
The bizarre
letter was met with incredulity, with many at first questioning its legitimacy
and some calling it a “joke” and an “embarrassment”.
Justin
Amash
✔
@justinamash
This is
insane.
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Brian
Schatz
✔
@brianschatz
This is 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
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“I actually
thought it was a prank, a joke, that it couldn’t possibly come from the Oval
Office,” the Democratic congressman Mike Quigley said to CNN. “It sounds all
the world like the president of the United States, in some sort of momentary
lapse, just dictated angrily whatever was on the top of his head.”
Quigley, a
member of the House intelligence committee, continued: “For him to write this
and to also say that it doesn’t affect us is ignorance at the highest level.”
The release
of the letter came on the heels of an overwhelming House vote to condemn
Trump’s troop withdrawal from Syria.
“Today in
the House, we voted 354-60 to condemn Trump’s actions with regard to Syria,”
the Democratic congressman Mike Levin said on Twitter. “Also, this letter is an
embarrassment to the office.”
It also
came out on the day of a heated White House meeting that ended with Trump
allegedly calling the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, a “third-rate politician”
and Pelosi saying: “I pray for the president all the time … I think now we have
to pray for his health – this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the
president.”
Trump
reportedly handed out copies of the letter at the meeting.
Jill Colvin
✔
@colvinj
Per the
same source, Trump handed out copies of the letter he'd sent to Erdogan at
today's meeting in what was interpreted as an attempt to show everyone how
tough he'd been.
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Sarah D.
Wire
✔
@sarahdwire
.@SenSchumer
says Trump showed them this same letter during their meeting
https://twitter.com/katierogers/status/1184567108853751809 …
Katie
Rogers
✔
@katierogers
Felt the
need to ask WH if this is actually real and it is.
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Burgess
Everett
✔
@burgessev
Senators
were passing around a printed copy of Trump's Erdogan letter on the Senate
floor, per source who witnessed the scene.
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The letter
was quickly parodied.
Tony
Posnanski
✔
@tonyposnanski
I have
obtained a copy of the letter from Trump to Turkey
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Myke Cole
✔
@MykeCole
I staged a
dramatic reading of Trump’s letter to Erdogan.
The part of
Erdogan is played by my cat - Ow, Fuck.
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Eric Koch
@EricDKoch
I present
to you all, Trump's crazy letter as the Star Wars crawl
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On
Wednesday, Trump also hailed his own decision to withdraw US troops from Syria
as strategically brilliant and declared the Kurds were “much safer now”,
contradicting the official assessment of both the state and defense departments
that the Turkish offensive was a disaster for regional stability and the fight
against Isis.
Former
officials said the most significant point about the letter was Trump’s
readiness to share a supposedly confidential letter from the Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) leader, Mazloum Kobani, with Erdoğan, whose forces were launching
an attack on the SDF.
“General
Mazloum is willing to negotiate with you, and he is willing to make concessions
that they would never have made in the past. I am confidentially enclosing a
copy of his letter to me, just received,” Trump wrote.
“These
words on White House stationary should embarrass all Americans, but Trump’s
‘confidential’ enclosure of the SDF commander’s letter will give our allies
even less reason to trust America,” said Ned Price, a former CIA officer and
National Security Council spokesman. “How much Nato correspondence has been
forwarded to Putin?”
Julian
Borger contributed reporting
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