President Trump blew up Twitter on Monday with an absolutely insane tweet describing the conditions under which he would decide to “obliterate” the economy of Turkey. But the craziest part is that his tweet was clearly intended to reassure people who were already concerned about his Syria announcement from the night before.
On Sunday night, the White House announced that Trump had told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the United States would be clearing out of northern Syria, allowing him to proceed with an invasion that will inevitably lead to the slaughter of our Kurdish allies who helped fight ISIS.
On Monday, Trump tweeted, “As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).”
….the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2019
On Twitter, people struggled to make sense of different parts of the tweet. Did he really say “in my great and unmatched wisdom”? What behavior does he consider “off limits”? What does he mean by “totally destroy and obliterate” the Turkish economy? When has he done this before? Was he joking about a significant foreign policy decision that effects countless lives and U.S. standing in the world? Or articulating a serious new policy?
But what’s especially bonkers is that this was clearly Trump’s attempt at reassuring those, including Republican lawmakers, who were raising alarms about the fate of the Kurds. He wanted to communicate: Don’t worry, Turkey knows it cannot use our withdrawal as an opportunity to massacre Kurds. And this is how he went about calming people down.
