Erdoğan to Trump: ‘You cannot buy Turkey’s democratic will’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is pushing back on President Trump’s threat to cut off aid to countries that support a United Nations resolution calling on the U.S. to rescind its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. 

“Mr. Trump, you cannot buy Turkey’s democratic will with your dollars”, Erdoğan said during a speech in Ankara, Turkey, according to Reuters.

{mosads}“I hope and expect the United States won’t get the result it expects from there [the United Nations] and the world will give a very good lesson to the United States,” he continued. 

The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote Thursday on the resolution, which would condemn Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 

“I like the message that Nikki [Haley] sent yesterday at the United Nations for all of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly,” Trump said on Wednesday. 

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes,” he continued. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

Trump broke with the international community earlier this month when he announced his decision on Jerusalem. 

The international community has traditionally recognized Tel Aviv as the Israeli capital; however, Israel has viewed Jerusalem as its capital. 

Palestinians have claimed the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state.