For several days now, the media has been consumed by the Donald Trump Gaza show.

Think back. What happened, in short, is that Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and that provided a great excuse for Israel to counter with a massive attack on the Palestinians.

Israel bulldozed Gaza. Washington’s local proxies, namely Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, then helped Hamas to surrender. Now, they will build “Trump town” in Gaza. The oil-rich among the proxies will finance this real estate project.

All else is, unfortunately, nonsense, though one open question is whether or not a war in Iran will be staged.

Throughout the whole process that has unfolded around Gaza, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has once again played a vital role. It was Erdogan who once more was the champion of on-camera insults thrown at Israel’s PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, during the slaughter, and it was Erdogan who assisted in delivering the Hamas surrender process as Trump geared up for his big day as the peacemaker.

As Trump’s Gaza show culminated, he praised Erdogan on October 13 in Egypt. But amid the noise and clamour of the media fight to deliver the quickest and most facile headlines from the Gaza extravaganza, it is the ‘historic’ Erdogan moments that took place during the Turkish leader’s end-of-September latest trip to New York and the White House that should not be overlooked – for they transparently reveal his real role in the sequence of Gaza events and in the US' Middle East politics in general.

Let’s remember that Erdogan's, or Turkey's, engagement with the US did not begin with Trump. It is just that its nature has become more transparent than ever because Trump does not care at all what people think, he does not deign to hide anything.

In contrast, Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, let’s recall, paid due deference to appearance and reality. He became known for calling Erdogan an autocrat when he talked to US mainstream media during his election campaign, but as president he was only too prepared to work with Erdogan behind the scenes.

“He knows about rigged elections better than anybody”

With Erdogan sat alongside him at an Oval Office press call on September 25, Trump referred to his Turkish counterpart as a man who knows more about rigged elections than anybody. A few jaws in the room dropped (a video recording of the moment is available on the White House’s website).

“It’s a pleasure to be with President Erdogan of Turkey and we’ve been friends for long time actually. Even for four years, when I was in exile. Unfairly, as it turns out. Rigged election. You know, he knows about rigged elections better than anybody. But, when I was in exile, we were still friends,” Trump told the gathered media.

Screenshot (@FoxNews): During the press conference, Trump learned that CNN in Turkey has diametrically opposed political affiliations to CNN in the US when he took a question from a representative of CNN Turk.

Screenshot: Trump reiterated his view that it was Erdogan who took over Syria.

'Give Erdogan legitimacy'

On September 24, Tom Barrack, Trump’s ambassador to Ankara as well as his special envoy to Syria, and Steven Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, attended a session at the Concordia Summit held during the annual convening of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The tape recording of the session is available on YouTube.

During his remarks on Turkey, Barrack disclosed that Trump ordered him to give legitimacy to Erdogan.

“What is the president trying to get done? Turkey is another example of exactly that. Some would say it is a great Nato ally, second largest Nato ally. All of that is true,” Barrack said.

“We’ve been dealing with the same issues for 10 years. [Russian] S-400s, [American] F-35s, F-16s. All [going] back is confusion. Are they friends? Are they foes? Are they dealing with Russia? Are they conservative Muslims or aggressive Muslims? Have they condemned the Muslim Brotherhood? They haven’t condemned Hamas. The same confusing issues,” he continued.

Barrack shared parts of a conversation he had with Trump, saying Trump told him: “You know what, I’m tired of all of this. Let's take a bold move and our relationship to relationship based. Give them what they need.”

Barrack said he asked: “So yes Mr President, what is that?” 

Trump, he said, replied: “Legitimacy.” 

“Right, I never forget it. He [Trump] is so smart. Because, it is not about lying, it is not about S-400s, it’s not about F-16s, it’s not. It’s about legitimacy,” Barrack told the Concordia audience.

Erdogan "keeps Lockheed Martin moving"

“He [Erdogan] is our greatest ally. He is the largest buyer of F-16s in the world. It keeps Lockheed moving. Yet, we are flirting with him on giving him F-35s. So… he is at a point. 71 years old,” Barrack added.

“It’s a democracy [in Turkey] but it’s kind of authoritarian and President Trump was genius and saying the solution is ‘I need to give him legitimacy’ and that's what’s happening,” he went on.

“I think you are gonna see a dramatic change as a result of again his [Trump’s] instinctiveness we live with every day. I’ve never thought of it in terms of it is just legitimacy,” Barrack concluded.

For his part, Witkoff mentioned how he gets on the phone to Barrack when he encounters an issue with Azerbaijan or Armenia. Barrack, he said, then calls Turkey’s spymaster Ibrahim Kalin and foreign minister Hakan Fidan to ask their opinions on how to get things done.

Tweets: Mainstream journalists in Turkey could not fathom the "rigged elections" and "legitimacy" remarks by Trump and his officials.

On April 16, 2017, a few hours before voting closed at 16:00 hours in Turkey’s 2017 constitutional referendum on the presidential system, Turkey’s supreme election council, YSK, decided that ballots that were not officially sealed or stamped by ballot box delegates could be entered into the count. Some say that the last real elections in Turkey were held in June 2015.

Erdogan among the "beggars" asking to shake Trump’s hand

On September 23, Trump’s Secretary of State Marc Rubio was live on Fox News. He was asked about comments made by Erdogan during an interview held on the channel the previous day in which Erdogan “seemed to take a shot” at Trump.

Erdogan’s comments were aired again for Rubio’s consideration.

Erdogan (via interpreter): “I can only say this: Mr Trump, you might remember, he used a term when he said I will finish the Russia-Ukraine war. Did it end? It still goes on. Similarly, he said I will finish the war in Gaza. Did it end? No.”

The Fox News host, addressing Rubio, responded to the clip, saying: “So he says the president doesn’t get it done. This is a Nato ally. Your thoughts?”

Rubio replied: “Well, look, I didn’t hear the entirety of the interview. I can only tell you that on both of those issues – on the case of Russia-Ukraine, the only leader in the world that has any chance of bringing it to an end is president Trump, and which is why he has put more time and energy into it than anybody else. All of these other countries, including Türkiye by the way, are begging us to be involved.”

“They go out and say what they want to say”

“Look, these people go out and say what they want to say. But, at the end of the day when they want something done... they want to come to the White House,” the Secretary of State added.

“President Erdogan is coming to the White House this week to meet with the president. They all come to the White House, they all want to speak to President Trump, they all want President Trump to fix it,” he added.

“Begging to be a part of it”

Rubio then remarked: “So they can say whatever they want to say. The truth of the matter is that we have leaders – we have meetings going on today and we have leaders begging to be a part of it. They are calling and saying: Can we be included? Can you bring us in? Can you get me five minutes to shake the president’s hand?”

The video recording of Rubio’s interview is available on YouTube and a transcript is available on the US Department of State’s official website.