As President Donald Trump celebrated the Gaza ceasefire agreement in Sharm el-Sheikh, he singled out one leader for extraordinary praise – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose leadership he credited for helping deliver the Gaza ceasefire.

“A guy who’s been a friend of mine for a long time. I don’t know why I like the tough people better than the soft, easy ones,” Trump said. “This gentleman from a place called Turkey is one of the most powerful in the world… He’s a tough cookie — but he’s my friend.”

During the war, Erdogan has condemned Israel’s military actions in Gaza while defending Hamas against U.S. policy, and avoided a leading diplomatic role in ending the war.

“You have to ask yourself what has changed,” a former senior Israeli intelligence official told Fox News Digital. “What prompted him, two years later, to return to the arena of power? The most iconic image is him sitting next to Trump at the U.N. — that’s where the seeds were planted. Why did Trump suddenly seat him by his side? He was likely told, ‘He’s the one who can bring us Hamas.’”

Trump’s public praise underscored a new level of trust between Washington and Ankara. But according to Turkish press reports, Erdogan refused to land his plane in Egypt after learning that Netanyahu — personally invited by Trump — might attend the summit. The Turkish president only agreed to land once it was confirmed that the Israeli leader would not be present.

“It was classic Erdogan theater,” said Sinan Ciddi, senior fellow and director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “He likely knew Netanyahu was expected, especially because the U.S. president was there. But refusing to land until Netanyahu was out gives him domestic political capital and boosts his image across parts of the Muslim world.”

Ciddi also recalled a moment he said was telling about Erdogan’s public posture. He referred to an appearance on Fox News where Erdogan stated, “I don’t consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization, but a resistance movement,” adding that he made the remark on American cable television, on American soil, “without facing repercussions.”

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