“Are you sure you are a reporter?” Trump asked after answering her lengthy question. “You don’t work for Turkey, with that question?”
One of several points of dispute between the U.S. and Turkey’s government relates to the YPG a terrorist group in Ankara’s eyes because of its affiliation to the PKK.
Turkey's Operation Peace Spring in northeast Syria last month was designed to push back the YPG from territory near the Turkish border.
The Turkish reporter, pro-Erdogan columnist Hilal Kaplan, was called upon by the Turkish president, after Trump joked that he should pick “a friendly person.”
She began by telling Trump that he has the burden of having to deal with President Obama’s “flawed foreign policy, and one of those flaws was aligning the U.S. with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, the PKK, and its Syrian offshoot, YPG.”
Kaplan said Trump, while trying to undo the damage that policy caused to bilateral ties, had also “invited the ringleader of [the] YPG to the White House,” a man who was responsible for deadly terrorist attacks in Turkey.
“So, after today’s meeting, do you still think of inviting him to the White House, which will be very offensive and hurtful for the Turkish public?” she asked.
In a tweet on October 24, Trump indicated that he might meet with Abdi, thanking him for his “kind words and courage,” and adding, ““Please extend my warmest regards to the Kurdish people. I look forward to seeing you soon.”
In his reply to Kaplan, Trump said he had “had a very good talk” with Abdi recently, and added that the U.S. was “working very closely” both with him and with Erdogan.
While sidestepping the reporter’s specific question about whether he would meet with Abdi, Trump called the U.S. relationship with Erdogan and Turkey “outstanding.”
He ended his answer with comments about Turkey’s importance as a purchaser of U.S. military equipment, before asking Kaplan whether she was, in fact, a reporter.