If Democrats’ relentless lawfare against Donald Trump had succeeded, the United States would be looking more like Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just jailed his chief political foe.
Erdogan laughably insists he had nothing to do with Sunday’s arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on absurd corruption and terrorism charges, nor with Istanbul University stripping Imamoglu’s diploma last week, conveniently disqualifying him from running for president.
The huge protests over the weekend show that Turkey’s people don’t buy it.
Nor should they: Erdogan has ruthlessly used his dozen-plus years in power to gain domination over nearly every once-independent institution, from the military to the judiciary to the press.
He has also end-run the Constitution’s two-term presidential limit, passing special amendments to weasel his way into a third straight five-year term in office in 2023 — when Imamoglu got sidelined with another joke charge, “publicly insulting a public official.”
The latest junk-justice offensive is proof positive that Erdogan means to steal a fourth term, no matter how off-year elections show his opposition is now more popular.
Yet the larger Trump administration doesn’t seem much to care, even though Erdo’s Islamism creates problems for US policy all across the region.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce’s lame comments so far are that Washington “would encourage Turkey to respect human rights,” but State won’t comment on “the internal decision-making of another country.”
Instead, the administration is reportedly considering lifting sanctions on Turkey and selling Ankara more fighter jets.
Hmm: Calling out Erdogan’s flagrant abuse of power would be a big winner for Trump, proving his opposition to authoritarianism while also showing up Europe’s cowardly leaders, who won’t risk ruffling the feathers of an autocrat they’ve been bribing for years to keep mass migration from their borders.
America is the guardian only of its own freedom, but the friend of liberty everywhere.
Trump can show he gets that second part with some choice remarks about Erdogan’s low lawfare as he bids to finish off Turkey’s democracy.
