President Donald Trump’s gushing praise of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at NATO’s summit on Tuesday even as Trump chafes with other allied leaders should have surprised nobody.

“If it weren’t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader — a very strong, uh, person — it’s possible that I wouldn’t have attended,” Trump told reporters alongside Erdoğan in Ankara.

Trump added he will cancel sanctions on that nation, imposed under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. That law is meant to keep foreign nations from doing business with Russia, North Korea and, most importantly these days, Iran, which the U.S. and Israel have droned for the better part of five months. Trump on Tuesday also reimposed sanctions on Iran selling oil.

Letting Turkey off the hook on all Iran sanctions might be considered a gift to Erdoğan from Trump, who chides NATO for declining to support his war. Trump is........

© Newsday