US President Donald Trump offered public praise for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday, expressing support for a government facing mass anti-government protests and increased market volatility following the detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Bloomberg reported.
“Good place, good leader, too,” Trump said during a meeting with ambassadorial nominees, remarks that Bloomberg reported were made shortly after an introduction by his longtime friend and Turkey ambassador nominee Tom Barrack, founder of Colony Capital LLC.
The endorsement comes amid a widening political crackdown in Turkey, which has drawn tens of thousands into the streets in daily demonstrations across major cities. İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival and a leading opposition figure, was jailed on Sunday on corruption charges — triggering the country’s largest wave of unrest in more than a decade.
Bloomberg noted that Trump’s comments reinforced investor expectations that Ankara would face little international political pressure in response to the crackdown. The Turkish lira, which plunged following İmamoğlu’s detention, was trading largely unchanged early Wednesday, as markets showed signs of stabilizing.
“President Erdoğan probably feels that he will have good relations with President Trump in the years ahead, as he had” during Trump’s first term, said Mustafa Akyol, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Meanwhile, Turkish officials are stepping up efforts to reassure global investors. According to Bloomberg, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Central Bank Governor Fatih Karahan held a conference call with thousands of foreign investors on Tuesday, organized by Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank. People familiar with the meeting told Bloomberg that Şimşek pledged to do “whatever it takes” to stabilize markets.
The lira was trading at 37.99 to the US dollar as of 8:20 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data. While the currency briefly dropped more than 10 percent last week, pushing it above 40 to the dollar, it has since been held within a tighter band.
Analysts believe the Turkish central bank has continued intervening in the currency market to support the lira. Selva Bahar Baziki, an economist at Bloomberg Economics in Ankara, told the outlet that “pro-lira interventions” were likely ongoing and could persist in the near term, further depleting foreign exchange reserves.
The central government’s response to the political unrest and the economic fallout continues to unfold, as Erdoğan’s administration faces mounting pressure at home and growing scrutiny abroad.