History will look upon you favorably if you get this done the right and humane way. 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!
This is much harsher wording than Trump typically uses when talking to autocrats, especially since he usually fawns over them, as he's done with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, and, of course, Russian president Vladimir Putin. Erdoğan doesn't seem to have been intimidated. Instead, he was reportedly furious, and a government source told the BBC, "President Erdogan received the letter thoroughly rejected it and put it in the bin.
A spokesperson for the Kremlin also mocked Trump's letter, saying, "You don't often encounter such language in correspondence between heads of state. It's a highly unusual letter." In diplomatic terms, "highly unusual" is akin to saying "batshit crazy." The Kurds, meanwhile, are now saying they're willing to partner with Russia and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in exchange for protection from Turkey.
Since Trump's announcement that he would pull troops from Syria, Erdoğan has been particularly brazen and unapologetic about Turkey's military campaign. In a Wall Street Journal published earlier this week titled "Turkey Is Stepping Up Where Others Fail to Act," he wrote, "My administration concluded that the international community wasn't going to act, so we developed a plan for northern Syria."
Vice president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo are currently in Turkey to meet with Erdoğan, who said earlier this week that he would only meet with Trump but then walked back on the demand. Which may very well be for the best-whatever that is at this point.
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