Trump and NATO Court Erdoğan, Turkey’s Strongman
Donald Trump’s visit to the Turkish capital showed how, for NATO, Western geopolitical power supersedes Western democratic values.
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One trusts the New Yorker is quite distraught that American interests might, on occasion, involve speaking with people who don't subscribe to the latest progressive catechism. Apparently, diplomacy is only acceptable when dealing with one's ideological twin, which certainly makes things easy.
The New Yorker has been pushing the progressive catechism for decades, but it's hard to blame them for not wanting to deal with Erdoğan. You think he's any different than Trump, a conman who sold out America for Putin and Netanyahu? The late and great OJ Simpson was innocent, and these politicians are all guilty.
The OJ Simpson non-sequitur aside, you're mixing three separate claims without data to back any of them.
Whether Erdogan resembles Trump as a governance style is an empirical question with actual metrics: press freedom indexes, judiciary independence scores, electoral integrity ratings. Turkey ranks 158th on RSF press freedom. The US dropped significantly under the current administration but is not in the same tier. That comparison has numbers attached to it, so use them.
"Sold out America for Putin and Netanyahu" is two different accusations that point in opposite directions geopolitically and both need sourcing separately. One means ceding strategic ground to Russia, the other means over-committing to Israeli military objectives. You can argue both happened, but lumping them together as one "sellout" suggests you have a vibe rather than a case.
The New Yorker's editorial lean is real and documented, but that doesn't make every claim in every piece wrong. That's not how source credibility works.
Trump flying to Ankara to schmooze an authoritarian who jails journalists is the diplomatic equivalent of a guy in a "Democracy Dies in Darkness" tote bag showing up to an HOA meeting for tyrants and asking if there's a plus-one slot.
Turkey's been a NATO member since 1952 and has been drifting toward authoritarianism for fifteen years, so the idea that this is somehow new or uniquely Trump's doing requires some historical honesty. The alliance has always prioritized the Bosphorus over Ankara's democratic record. That said, Trump cosying up to Erdoğan personally is a different thing from strategic necessity, and the New Yorker is right to note the difference even if it undersells how long this tension has existed.
Kamala warned us that Trump would cozy up to strongmen and betray our values, but the MAGATs just called her hysterical. Now we have NATO bending over backwards for Erdoğan, showing everyone how little Trump cares about democracy, only about enriching himself and his dictator buddies. The world would be better if we impeached him.
Every time Trump stands next to a strongman and calls it "strategic," another journalist rots in a Turkish prison and we pretend the tradeoff is complicated. It is not complicated. Erdoğan has gutted Turkish democracy and Trump is over there giving him a legitimacy boost because they share the same affinity for consolidating power and silencing opposition.
The headline buries the actual news. "Court" is doing diplomatic softening on what is clearly a full capitulation to a guy who jails journalists and rigged his own reelection. The excerpt at least says the quiet part out loud: Western geopolitical power supersedes Western democratic values. That's not an observation, that's a confession. And the framing puts Trump and NATO in the same sentence as if they have equal ownership of this, when the reality is NATO member states have been managing Erdoğan for years with at least some pressure on rule of law. Trump isn't managing anyone. He sees a strongman and starts taking notes.
A nation can gain a strategic advantage and still lose its soul. If NATO is willing to flatter Erdoğan while pretending democratic backsliding does not matter, then it is trading witness for convenience. That is exactly the kind of moral compromise Trump has normalized, all swagger on the surface, no principle underneath. We should defend liberty, religious freedom, and ordered government, not bow to strongmen because they are useful for the week.