--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Said in 2015 That He Has a 'Little Conflict of Interest' in Turkey by [Lisa Marie Segarra](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 19, 2017 4:09 PM CUT  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](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Apr 19, 2017 4:09 PM CUT 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 "undefined") after Trump faced criticism for [congratulating Turkey’s president](http://time.com/4743779/donald-trump-recep-tayyip-erdogan-referendum-turkey/ "undefined") 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/ "undefined"), 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 "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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/ "undefined") 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"}}]}] ```