--- title: Donald Trump Turkey: He Said He Had a Conflict of Interest description: In 2015, Trump said in an interview that he had a conflict of interest with Turkey because of his Trump Towers building in the country. canonical: https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T16:09:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:29:43.804Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Said That He Has a 'Conflict of Interest' in Turkey og:description: In a 2015 interview. og:url: https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf623d486e42eb88e/6988c38bab6d77ddf86adb36/gettyimages-669994524.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: trump-turkey-conflict og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Said That He Has a 'Conflict of Interest' in Turkey twitter:description: In a 2015 interview. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf623d486e42eb88e/6988c38bab6d77ddf86adb36/gettyimages-669994524.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Said in 2015 That He Has a 'Little Conflict of Interest' in Turkey > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 19, 2017 4:09 PM UTC  President Donald Trump returns to the White House April 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump returns to the White House April 18, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photograph by Kevin Dietsch—Getty/Pool by [Lisa Marie Segarra](https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 19, 2017 4:09 PM UTC President Trump said that he has a “conflict of interest” in Turkey because of a development there in a 2015 interview. The interview was resurfaced by [Mother Jones](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/trump-turkey-erdogan-conflict-interest) after Trump faced criticism for [congratulating Turkey’s president](http://time.com/4743779/donald-trump-recep-tayyip-erdogan-referendum-turkey/) Tayyip Erdogan on winning a referendum that increases his power. “I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul,” Trump said on Breitbart News Daily. “It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers—two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two.” The host of the news show was Breitbart executive [Steve Bannon](http://time.com/4657665/steve-bannon-donald-trump/), who now serves as an advisor to Trump in the White House. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who now works in the White House as well, also faced criticism as users on Twitter resurfaced an old tweet of hers from 2012 that thanked Erdogan. > [](https://twitter.com/IvankaTrump/status/193337302066540545) Trump has said [“the president can’t have a conflict of interest”](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/trump-new-york-times-interview-transcript.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0) because he’s [not covered by U.S. laws](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/11/23/trumps-claim-that-the-president-cant-have-a-conflict-of-interest/?utm%5Fterm=.040d4371bba2) governing conflicts in the executive branch. He’s currently being [sued by an ethics watchdog group](http://time.com/money/4643259/donald-trump-lawsuit-emoluments-money-foreign-governments/) which argues that his financial dealings violate a constitutional prohibition on financial conflicts. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/"},"headline":"President Trump Said in 2015 That He Has a 'Little Conflict of Interest' in Turkey","datePublished":"2017-04-19T16:09:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:29:43.804Z","description":"\"I have a little conflict of interest 'cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul.\"","url":"https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Foreign Policy","White House","Turkey","Constitution","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf623d486e42eb88e/6988c38bab6d77ddf86adb36/gettyimages-669994524.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf623d486e42eb88e/6988c38bab6d77ddf86adb36/gettyimages-669994524.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-turkey-conflict","caption":"President Donald Trump Returns to the White House","creditText":"Photograph by Kevin Dietsch—Getty/Pool","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4746348/donald-trump-turkey-conflict-interest/","name":"President Trump Said in 2015 That He Has a 'Little Conflict of Interest' in Turkey"}}]}] ```