America’s “TV animal” president on April 7 put on another nutty episode in his office at the White House. It was not, however, as scandalous as the episode in which he was accompanied by another TV performer, now known as “the Ukraine guy who refuses to wear a suit”.

Nevertheless, top-of-the-charts Trump did, thanks to a guest appearance in his one-man show from Israel’s PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, provide the Turkey media merchants with some good material.

Bomb-job prelude

Lately, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, attempted to take over a military airport in Syria. Getting wind of the move, Netanyahu bombed it into the ground.

On April 4, Erdogan’s foreign minister said: “We don't want to see any confrontation with Israel in Syria.”

On April 5, Netanyahu’s office said that Israel-Turkey relations would be on the White House agenda for discussions with Trump.

Bibi, the bestie

With his visit, Netanyahu became the first head of state to meet with POTUS since he knocked the planet off its axis with his tariffs announcement.

In late January, Netanyahu was the first country leader hosted at the White House by Trump following the start of his comeback presidency.

Bibi to avoid conflict with Turkey

“We also discussed the situation in Syria,” Netanyahu told reporters at Trump’s office.

“We have… we’ve had neighbourly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated. And, we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attacks against Israel,” he added.

“Turkey is a country that has a great relationship with the United States. The president has a relationship with the leader of Turkey,” Netanyahu also noted.

“We discussed how we can avoid this conflict in a variety of ways, and I think we can’t have a better interlocutor than the president of the United States for this purpose,” he said, endinng his remarks on the Turkey agenda item.

“A man named Erdogan”

“I have great relations with a man named Erdogan. Have you heard of him? I happen to like him and he likes me,” Trump told reporters.

Video: Trump’s remarks on Turkey.

“The press will get very angry”

“And I know the press will get very angry. ‘He likes Erdogan’. But, I do. And, he likes me. And, we’ve never had a problem and we’ve gone through a lot and we've never had a problem,” Trump added.

Pastor Brunson remembered

“You know, he’d got, as you remember, we got our minister back from Turkey. You remember that. And, this was a big deal at the time. And, we got him back,” Trump, said, recalling the Pastor Andrew Brunson crisis back in 2018.

Following the coup attempt that took place in Turkey in July 2016, Erdogan’s guys kidnapped missionary pastor Brunson in Izmir and held him captive to use against the US.

After Trump moved into the White House in January 2017, he repeatedly asked Erdogan to send the preacher back to the US.

Brunson is an Evangelist missionary and the Evangelists in the US were eating at Trump every day. They wouldn’t let it go.

Eventually, in June 2018, Trump said enough was enough. Okay, Erdogan may have helped out a lot with his Trump Towers in Istanbul. But, the Evangelists were really giving him a lot of bother. And, so he wrote a tweet.

The gist of it was: “Look, Erdo. Okay, I like you. We did really good business. But, you’ve got to send my pastor back. Or, I’ll have to destroy your economy.”

The lira’s freefall began with this tweet. The USD/TRY was in the 3s and 4s at the time. It is currently at 38.

“Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey”

“And, I told the prime minister, I just said ‘Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I’m going to be able to work it out’,” Trump also said before the cameras on April 7.

“You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader. And, I think we'll be able to work it out. So, I hope that's not going to be a problem. I don't think it will be a problem,” he added.

Syria uncensored

Thinking back to a phone call he held with Erdogan after Ahmad Al-Shaara-led jihadists took over Damascus in December, Trump said: “[…] I believe that it was Turkey [that brought down the Syrian regime]. And, I said that to him [Erdogan]. I said it. I said ‘Congratulations, you've done what nobody's been able to do in 2,000 years. You've taken over Syria’.”

“With different names, but same thing. I said ‘You've taken it over’. He's taken it over through surrogates,” the POTUS added.

“Weeell, a sort of, maybe it was me, okay”

“He goes ‘No, no, noo. No, no, noo. It was not meee’,” Trump mimicked Erdogan’s reply on the phone.

“I said ‘It was youu. But, that’s okay. You don’t have to say,” Trump recapped.

“‘Weeell, a sort of, maybe it was me, okay’”.

“But, what he did. Look. He’s a tough guy. And, he's very smart. And, he did something that nobody was able to do,” Trump added.

Twisting Erdo around his little finger

Trump, albeit so often treated as a clown by much of the US media, is aware of Erdogan’s weaknesses and believes that he is twisting him around his little finger.

When Erdogan called Trump to congratulate him on his first presidential election win in 2016, Trump told Erdogan that his daughter Ivanka was a fan.

It was another way of saying: “I really love twisting impotent primates around my finger.”

Erdogan’s media circulated Trump’s Ivanka remark for quite a while.

Just leave it to me Beebs

“You know, you got a hitherto. Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think I can solve. I mean, as long as you're reasonable. You have to be reasonable. We have to be reasonable,” Trump told Netanyahu, concluding his Turkey remarks.