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WASHINGTON — <\/span>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> has berated and belittled many of his European counterparts expected to attend next week’s NATO summit<\/a> in Turkey. But host Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a> has drawn on his close ties with the U.S. president to secure his presence at the Ankara event \u2014 an appearance that may even come with a significant gift related to Turkish defense.<\/p>\n Trump has frequently lavished praise on the Turkish president,<\/a> calling him a \u201chell of a leader\u201d and a good friend. \u201cI would not have gone for most people,\u201d Trump said last week. \u201cBut he called me up. He said: \u2018Please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be in there.\u2019 And so I\u2019m going out of respect to President Erdogan.\u201d<\/p>\n Leveraging that respect has helped Erdogan avoid the disarray<\/a> that the U.S. president\u2019s absence would cause the alliance, particularly at a time when Trump has been repeatedly threatening to pull U.S. forces<\/a> from Europe and scale back America\u2019s role in NATO<\/a>, unsettling allies. Trump has long rebuked other NATO countries over their defense spending \u2014 and claimed last year\u2019s pledge to collectively boost it<\/a> as a major personal win \u2014 while more recently clashing with them for failing to back his war against Iran. <\/p>\n But Trump has sweetened the deal for Erdogan by also hinting that he could make news during his visit related to jet engines and the potential sale of F-35 fighter jets<\/a> barred for years because of Turkey\u2019s closeness with Moscow.<\/p>\n The Republican president’s affinity for strongmen leaders<\/a> has long made him an admirer of Erdogan, who amassed power in Turkey first as its prime minister and now in his 13th year as president. <\/p>\n \u201cHis relationship with Erdogan, which is pretty strong, is consistent with what seems to be a pattern of his preference,\u201d said Philip Gordon, who served as national security adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris. \u201cIt has often been pointed out he seems to have better relationships with adversaries and autocrats, and he certainly says nicer things about them than with allies.\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon, now at the Brookings Institution, added, \u201cErdogan is taking full advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump \u2014 who is expected to have a bilateral meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit \u2014 will be the first U.S. president to visit Turkey since Barack Obama in 2015. By contrast, U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s administration kept Erdogan at arm’s length during his four years in office over Turkey\u2019s democratic backsliding and close ties to Russia.<\/p>\n Opposition parties and human rights organizations have accused Erdogan of undermining democracy<\/a> and curbing freedom of expression<\/a>. They say baseless investigations and prosecutions of human rights activists, journalists, opposition politicians and others remain a persistent problem in Turkey.<\/p>\n Soner Cagaptay of the Washington Institute said Erdogan and Trump \u201cclicked\u201d personally during Trump\u2019s first term. When Biden extended an invitation in 2024 for Erdogan to visit the U.S. after Turkey endorsed Finland and Sweden\u2019s NATO membership<\/a>, Erdogan decided not to go.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was Erdogan\u2019s way of signaling to Trump, \u2018Hey, you are going to probably win the elections,’\u201d Cagaptay said. \u201cI think Trump saw that as a giant gesture.\u201d<\/p>\n During a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte<\/a> last week, a reporter asked Trump whether he was taking \u201ca big gift bag for Erdogan\u201d on the trip, noting that Ankara wants F-110 jet engines and F-35 fighter jets.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I think so,\u201d Trump responded. \u201cYeah, I\u2019m going to probably do something that\u2019s going to make him very happy.\u201d Trump had also suggested last September<\/a> that the U.S. could soon start selling F-35s to Turkey.<\/p>\n Turkey was barred from the program in 2019<\/a> after it purchased Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems. U.S. officials have feared that Turkey\u2019s use of the Russian system could enable Moscow to gather information on the F-35\u2019s capabilities. <\/p>\n At the Oval Office meeting, Vice President JD Vance said Washington was exploring ways to sell \u2060Turkey the jets, emphasizing that any sale would ensure Turkey has complied with U.S. law. There is significant bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill to selling the F-35s to Turkey as long as Ankara is in possession of the Russian missile defense systems, including from influential Republicans such as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch of Idaho. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the F-110 jet engines<\/a> that Turkey is seeking to purchase would power its domestically produced KAAN fighter jets. The State Department last week took a step toward making those sales, sending key lawmakers a notice that it planned to bypass congressional opposition to more than $700 million of the jet-engine sales to Ankara, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss details of a nonpublic notification.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, the State Department did not even attempt to justify its decision,\u201d New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement last week. \u201cIt did not invoke any emergency authority, did not present a written rationale, and for months refused to make a good-faith effort to brief me on implications of the sale for the U.S.-Turkey relationship, Turkey\u2019s continued possession of the Russian S-400 system, and other regional security concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n The relationship between the U.S. and Turkey is thawing in other ways, too. Earlier this year, the Justice Department dropped a major case against Turkey\u2019s state\u2011owned Halkbank, which had been accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n When he returned to the White House for his second term, Trump appointed a close friend as ambassador to Turkey: Tom Barrack, a longtime ally who also served as the chairman of his inaugural committee. \u201cBarrack is playing a crucial role as a facilitator in the relationship,\u201d said Ahmet Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Ankara\u2019s TED University.<\/p>\n Erdogan and Trump have frequently held telephone calls to discuss Syria, Gaza and the wider Middle East, and Turkey joined Trump\u2019s Board of Peace<\/a> aimed at overseeing the ceasefire in Gaza. Trump claimed this month that he asked Erdogan to stay out of the war in Iran and that the Turkish leader complied, though there is no indication that Turkey had ever intended to get involved.<\/p>\n Trump expressed admiration for Erdogan even while standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> at a joint press conference last year. Netanyahu, whose government is at odds with Ankara, had hoped to win Trump\u2019s support for pushing back on Turkish influence in Syria, but instead found himself watching as Trump showered praises on Erdogan and urged Netanyahu to be \u201creasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n