Erdoğan Exploits the Trump-Vance Vacuum

Turkey Slips

Ever the opportunist.

Among the world’s dictators, would-be strongmen, and tyrants-in-training, none are slipperier—more enduring—than Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He’s not the loudest. Not the bloodiest. But he is, without a doubt, the hardest to remove.

The man knows, intuitively, which side of the bread the butter is on.

He’ll order American F-16s, then shield them with Russia’s S-400s. Undermine Assad’s regime from afar, then roll out the red carpet for fleeing Russian troops. Call Putin a “dear friend” over breakfast, then denounce Crimea’s annexation by dinner.

You can lose Trump. You can collapse Putin. But Erdoğan? He’s built to last. Turkey lacks America’s institutional guardrails. Its opposition has no safety net. Yet Erdoğan, unlike Putin, doesn’t drown in hubris. He rarely makes unforced errors. That makes him not just dangerous—but durable.

And now, the opportunist in Erdoğan has struck again. The timing? Impeccable.