Trump calls both Erdogan and Netanyahu ‘terrific’, repeats claim that he kept Turkey out of Iran war

US President Donald Trump praises both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while acknowledging the ongoing feud between the leaders over the potential sale of American F-35 jets to Ankara, saying he told Netanyahu that he personally prevented Erdogan from entering the war against Iran on Tehran’s side.

“I like Erdogan,” Trump tells reporters at the NATO summit in Turkey, calling the Turkish leader “terrific.”

“You know, he could have gone into the [Iran] war,” he says, repeating a claim he made late last month, before pointing to remarks by Netanyahu – whom he also praises as “a terrific wartime prime minister” – and the premier’s recent criticism of Erdogan.

“Bibi said real things yesterday about Turkey and Erdogan,” Trump says, using the premier’s nickname. “And I said, you know, I spoke to [Netanyahu]. I said [Erdogan] could have gone into the war because he doesn’t like Israel much, and he doesn’t like Bibi much, and he didn’t go because of me.”

He adds that Turkey is “a military power, [with] millions of soldiers. Turkey is very strong. They have a lot of our best equipment. They’re trying to get the F-35.”

“But [Erdogan] didn’t go in” to the Iran war, Trump says, again claiming he had persuaded the Turkish leader to stay out of the conflict, apparently suggesting this demonstrates that Ankara is not acting as a hostile party.

“He would have gone in, and he would have been on the other side – I don’t think he likes the other side either, because he happens to be very sane, and they happen to be very crazy – but I think, you know, they treated us right,” he says.

Turkey did not give any public indication that it was considering joining the fighting on Iran’s side during the war, and in several instances was in the line of Iranian missile fire that was downed by NATO air defenses.