--- title: Donald Trump To Turkish Reporter: "Are You Friend Or Foe?" description: When confronted with a question by a Turkish reporter, Donald Trump asked if he was an enemy. canonical: https://time.com/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-01T19:32:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:01:17.554Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump to Turkish Reporter: 'Are You Friend or Foe?' og:description: Trump has been known to ask the question at rallies og:url: https://time.com/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a591492809ecb5/698899c5428a9e0a1acd339c/trump-flip-flop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Speech - June 22, 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump to Turkish Reporter: 'Are You Friend or Foe?' twitter:description: Trump has been known to ask the question at rallies twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a591492809ecb5/698899c5428a9e0a1acd339c/trump-flip-flop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump to Turkish Reporter: 'Are You Friend Or Foe?' > 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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 1, 2016 7:32 PM UTC  Donald Trump gives campaign speech at Trump SoHo in New York City on June 22, 2016. Donald Trump gives campaign speech at Trump SoHo in New York City on June 22, 2016. Steve Sands—FilmMagic/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 1, 2016 7:32 PM UTC Donald Trump often asks people if they are “friend or foe,” but on Friday that tendency drew controversy when he asked the question of a Turkish reporter asking a question. “Are you from Turkey, sir?” Trump responded when a journalist, who [identified himself on Twitter](https://twitter.com/yusufserce/status/748950936358227968) as Yusuf Serce, asked him a question. “I think he’s friend,” Trump says to the audience, pointing at the reporter. “Are you friend or foe?” he then asked Serce directly. This is not the first time Trump has asked someone their allegiance at a campaign event. During rallies, when the presumptive GOP nominee hears sounds of a disruption, sometimes Trump will yell out the question to gauge whether the noise is coming from protesters or cheering fans. “I just wanted to let him say what he wants to say,” was Serce’s [response on Twitter](https://twitter.com/yusufserce/status/748950936358227968): > [](https://twitter.com/yusufserce/status/748950936358227968) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/"},"headline":"Donald Trump to Turkish Reporter: 'Are You Friend Or Foe?'","datePublished":"2016-07-01T19:32:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:01:17.554Z","description":"Trump has been known to ask the question at rallies","url":"https://time.com/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a591492809ecb5/698899c5428a9e0a1acd339c/trump-flip-flop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt28a591492809ecb5/698899c5428a9e0a1acd339c/trump-flip-flop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Speech - June 22, 2016","caption":"Donald Trump gives campaign speech at Trump SoHo in New York City on June 22, 2016.","creditText":"Steve Sands—FilmMagic/Getty Images","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/4391997/donald-trump-turkey-friend-foe/","name":"Donald Trump to Turkish Reporter: 'Are You Friend Or Foe?'"}}]}] ```