Trump Has No Problem Letting NATO Allies Become Dictatorships
Ahead of his speech Thursday night, Donald Trump gave the New York Times an interview covering a wide range of topics, including foreign policy.
While this debacle of a convention has been underway, Turkey's Erdogan has been executing a purge of government officials who have registered dissent recently or in the past. Here's the running count, so far of Erdogan's purge:
- 6,000 soldiers arrested or suspended
- 85 generals jailed
- 21,000 public school teachers had their licenses suspended
- 1,577 university professors ordered to resign
- 9,322 citizens facing legal actions connected with the coup
- 492 clerics. preachers and religious teachers fired
- 399 employees of the Family and Social Policies ministry fired
- 257 staff in the Prime Minister's office fired
Regardless of who is on the side of the angels here, this is a dangerous cleansing of dissenting views in a country which has been presented as a successful democracy.
When asked about Turkey and how he would handle it, Trump told The Times the United States has to “fix our own mess” before meddling in the business of other nations.
He went on to admonish, saying he didn't think "we had a right to lecture."