US President Donald Trump has described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “tough cookie” and claimed that fellow NATO leaders routinely ask him to intervene when they face difficulties with Ankara, according to a new interview with Politico.
In the video interview, Trump was asked whether there are NATO members that should not be in the alliance. He replied that while he does not believe any country should be pushed out, there are “difficult” allies within NATO, citing Turkey as a prime example.
“Not that they shouldn’t be. I think it’s good to have them. Turkey’s an example,” Trump said.
Turning to Erdoğan personally, Trump called the Turkish leader “a friend of mine” and praised his leadership style even as he acknowledged the strain in Ankara’s relations with other allies.
“He’s a tough cookie,” Trump said. “Whenever they have a problem with Erdoğan, they ask me to call because they can’t speak to him. I actually like him a lot. I think actually, you know, look, he’s built a strong country, strong military, but they have a hard time dealing with him.”
Trump portrayed himself as an informal mediator within the alliance, claiming that NATO leaders approach him when disputes with Turkey escalate.
“They asked me to call him and I do call him and I always work it out with him,” he said. “You know, he and I work it out like really quickly.”
He went on to assert that Erdoğan has released detainees following Trump’s personal interventions, without specifying who they were, when they were released or under what charges.
“We had some people that he released that were taken and going through years and years of court cases and everything else,” Trump said. “And I said, you know, you got to release ’em. And he did.”
Trump did not provide further details, but in the past he has publicly claimed credit for the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson, who was detained in Turkey on terrorism and espionage charges and freed in 2018 after a period of intense diplomatic pressure from Washington.
The remarks came in a wide-ranging Politico interview in which Trump discussed NATO, the war in Ukraine and European politics. Politico recently placed Trump at the top of its list of figures shaping Europe, underscoring how his statements and potential return to the White House continue to influence debates on defense spending, Ukraine policy and transatlantic cohesion.
Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, occupies a critical geostrategic position, controlling key sea routes between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and hosting important alliance facilities. At the same time, its ties with other NATO capitals have been strained for years. Frictions have deepened over Ankara’s purchase of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, its subsequent removal from the US-led F-35 fighter jet program and persistent concerns about human rights, mass terrorism trials and sweeping purges following the failed coup attempt in 2016.
Trump’s latest comments highlight how Erdoğan’s Turkey is viewed inside NATO as both an indispensable partner and a challenging ally — and how Trump sees his personal relationship with the Turkish president as a diplomatic asset that, in his telling, other leaders depend on to manage that delicate balance.
