Eli Lake, Columnist

Why Turkey's Islamist Leader Is So Happy About Trump

If Mike Flynn is steering the next administration's Syria policy, it's out with the Kurds and in with the Turks.

November 17, 2016 at 9:38 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Enemy of my enemy.
Photographer: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images

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Many people are delighted by Donald Trump's election last week. There are (some) Republicans. Some Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Alt-right online trolls and opponents of free trade. Add to this list Turkey's Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan himself has already invited Trump to Ankara. In an interview after the election, he said he thought the U.S. and Turkey could cooperate more on Syria.