While reading in AL Monitor about Middle Eastern reaction to Trump’s desire to pull out of Syria, I was struck by the following rhetoric from Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim:
Talking to reporters on March 31 as he was flying back from a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim complimented Trump on his “courageous decision.” He added that although different branches of the US government were saying they knew nothing about plans to withdraw from Syria, it was Trump’s words that Turkey looked to.
It occurred to me to wonder, Does Trump actually take boilerplate speeches like this seriously? Personal compliments of this sort are meant to manipulate weak leaders, and U.S. Presidents understand this. But does Trump? One of the reasons he engages in those “ego-rallies,” as one friend terms them, is because he is continually seeking reassurance and positive feedback. So he says he doesn’t want to stay in Syria, even though various advisors say that’s where we should be. Will the words of the Turkish Prime Minister manipulate him into leaving, despite the best advice from his own government?
I have no opinion on the Syrian conflict myself, I should add. I haven’t studied it, and it often seems like any action taken – or bypassed – in the Middle East comes at some unanticipated cost.
But Trump should act with the best advice of his long-time foreign relations and diplomatic experts in mind, not the words of a foreign official with his own country’s agenda in mind.
