A video circulating on social media shows a pro-government broadcaster’s Washington correspondent on camera saying that “Turkey gained nothing” from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump, with additional remarks about rivalries inside Erdoğan’s circle.
Remarks by Hüseyin Günay, NTV’s Washington correspondent, were captured by an Associated Press camera outside the White House and spread online on Monday.
In the same footage Günay refers to a three-way struggle involving Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Erdoğan’s son Bilal and son-in-law Selçuk Bayraktar, saying that infighting is aimed at controlling a possible post-Erdoğan Turkey.
The hot mic moment followed Erdoğan’s first White House visit with Trump in six years, a meeting that Ankara’s critics cast as one where Turkey made concessions without securing clear gains on long-running disputes.
Trump publicly pressed Turkey to stop buying Russian oil and hinted that he could lift sanctions to allow sales of advanced F-35 jets to Ankara, statements that stopped short of confirming US policy changes.
The visit was followed by Turkish Airlines signing a deal to buy up to 225 Boeing aircraft, a move seen by critics as a bribe ordered by Erdoğan to secure a meeting with Trump.
Turkish main opposition leader claimed before the details of the Boeing purchase emerged that Erdoğan secretly met with Trump’s eldest son, where the Turkish president promised the large-scale purchase to secure the Oval Office meeting.
Analysts noted that core sticking points remain between the two NATO allies despite cordial leader-level ties, including Turkey’s removal from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 2019 and US restrictions linked to Ankara’s purchase of a Russian air defense system.