I MAKE THE BEST DEALS!!

🚨 🚨 SIX sources: Trump’s Erdoğan bluff led to Turkish invasion https://t.co/oWdjZrZGRo

— Jim VandeHei (@JimVandeHei) October 13, 2019

Sources in Turkey have indicated that while Erdoğan was talking big, he thought Trump would restrain him, a U.S. official familiar with the details told Axios’ Margaret Talev.

For example, Erdoğan did not expect — or want — a 30-km-deep (18-mile) buffer; that was assumed to be a negotiation aimed at getting something smaller.

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The source paraphrased their recollection of what Trump said on the call: “It was pretty blustery. Trump was like, ‘I don’t want to be there in the first place, but you know our guys are there. They don’t take s—t. We’re there. Maybe I don’t want to be there, but if you do a border crossing and come into conflict with our guys, they are way better equipped and you don’t want to do that.’” Trump’s message, the source said, was “don’t mess with the U.S. military.”
But after conveying that threat, Trump signaled he wasn’t going to keep his troops in Syria for long and was not going to be hanging around to protect the Kurds against the Turks, the source added. Trump said something to the effect of, “But you know I don’t want to be there. We’re there to defeat ISIS. My people tell me we are winning. … So hang tight. But you don’t want to get into a conflict with my guys,” the source recalled.

Jesus