Donald Trump, who barely stroked the flag in the last presidential elections, now has started to impact the system from a distance.
Trump initially laid his hand on the Republican Party. He is hunting down Republican Congress members who voted in favor of impeaching him. The first person to get her share from Trump’s ‘revenge’ was Liz Cheney, the Member of the House of Representatives and daughter of the Former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is considered among the most symbolic figures for Republicans in the recent period.
Following the voting initiated by Trump, Liz Cheney lost her number three position in the leadership of House Republicans. Elise Stefanik, who has become one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, has been voted in Cheney’s stead. This election in the Congress is the most concrete example that the Republican Party hasn’t discarded Trump yet.
AN OPEN LETTER FROM RETIRED GENERALS
Trump’s influence has not only been limited to the Congress. An open letter addressed to President Joe Biden signed by 124 retired generals and admirals warned that “Our nation is in deep peril”, and brought up the debunked allegation that the last election was stolen. It also supported ideas such as the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico promoted by Trump during his Presidential term and indirectly questioned 78-year-old President Biden’s physical and mental condition as ‘the Commander in Chief ’. Biden’s policies regarding China and Iran were particularly criticized in the statement.
A small note should be included here: We all know what happened in Turkey after retired admirals expressed their opinions regarding the Montreux Convention in a statement. In the U.S., no one was indicted, taken into custody, or arrested, nor was a suit filed or a judicial investigation conducted against anyone. The open letter of has been classified within the frame of ‘freedom of speech’. Both the statement by American generals and admirals and the change in the Republican Party management in Congress were interpreted in the American political arena as the first step showing that Trump will be influential in the 2022 midterm elections were a third of the Congress will be on the ballot. And of course, this has alarmed Democrats, especially President Joe Biden’s administration.
AS TRUMP PUSHES, FORMER ALLIES ARE EXCLUDED
As opinions about Trump’s possible return – maybe stronger than ever- rise in the U.S. domestic politics, the Biden administration is heading toward policies to remove traces of the Trump era at home but mostly abroad.
Those considered as Trump’s ‘allies’ abroad are affected by this most.
The U.S. President Biden’s frosty attitude toward President Recep Tayyip Erdogan should also be read in this context. Erdogan brought Turkish-American relations to a personal level with his direct communication with president Trump. He made direct requests about many issues such as the Halkbank trial, withdrawal of American troops positioned in Syria. Trump reportedly made attempts to accommodate Erdogan, although he couldn’t fulfill the majority of them due to the resistance of the American bureaucracy.
After Joe Biden became President, his approach toward the AK Party government in Turkey has been nothing but criticism on almost all issues, from human rights violations to the Eastern Mediterranean policy. Turkey has been transformed into a country mentioned in the same sentences with China, ignoring its NATO membership. Moreover, a U.S. Presidential statement recognized the events of 1915 as a ‘genocide’.
The same situation is playing out in Washington as the Israel-Palestine conflict comes to a bloody end. The Biden administration has taken steps to further exclude the AK Party government while statements such as the ‘leadership of the Ummah’ come from Ankara.
Moreover, the U.S. Department of State has issued a written statement condemning what it calls President Erdogan’s anti-Semitic language in his speeches.
As Trump pushes in the U.S., Washington shuts the door on the AK Party government…