I did not anticipate when I woke up this morning that Turkey, Syria, and the Kurds would be the major topic of conversation in the political world, but welcome to the Trump presidency. More on that in a moment. For now, note that a federal judge has ordered that Trump turn over eight years of tax returns to the Manhattan D.A. as part of the investigation into campaign finance violations associated with Trump's payments to Stormy Daniels via Michael Cohen. Trump, obviously, is expected to appeal.

Meanwhile, Trump's decision to endorse a Turkish military operation in Syria this morning pushes the impeachment inquiry off the front page for the moment. It's unclear if that was the point, or if he may be using the impeachment inquiry as cover so that he can do something he's long wanted to do, or if Trump just really wants to do the bidding of the Russians and Turks, given Trump's weirdly close relationship with Turkey's authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Let us be clear: The president has sided with authoritarian leaders of Turkey and Russia over our loyal allies and America's own interests. His decision is a sickening betrayal both of the Kurds and his oath of office.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 7, 2019

I'm going to simplify this issue best I can: For many years, we have been fighting ISIS. The Kurds have been our strongest ally in the region in doing so, and they have lost up to 10,000 troops in that effort to help.

Turkey, however, doesn't like the Kurds -- they think they're a terrorist insurgency. Turkey wants to invade Northern Syria, take over that territory, and use it to accommodate the return of at least one million Syrian migrants now inside of Turkey. To do so, the Turks may -- no, probably will -- completely wipe out the Kurds, who have largely been protected by the United States. By removing our troops, Trump is basically hanging out the Kurds to dry, and it also removes an important counterweight to the Russians. It also endangers a lot counterintelligence work, and ultimately could lead to not just the deaths of Kurdish forces -- again, our strongest ally in the region -- but the resurrection of ISIS, which Trump keeps saying that we have wiped out (we have not). The Syrian Kurds, for instance, are also holding 10,000 ISIS fighters in make-shift prisons there, and no one knows what will happen to them during this operation.

The Syrian Kurds are being abandoned after they fought, and lost 10k men and women, to battle ISIS for the world. Now, they could be- and many expect will be- wiped out in a campaign of ethnic violence/displacement. https://t.co/4UsdCyFD6U

— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) October 7, 2019

Here's how Trump addressed the situation on Twitter:

The Kurds fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment to do so. They have been fighting Turkey for decades. I held off this fight for almost 3 years, but it is time for us to get out of these ridiculous Endless Wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers home. WE WILL FIGHT WHERE IT IS TO OUR BENEFIT, AND ONLY FIGHT TO WIN.

"Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out, and what they want to do with the captured ISIS fighters in their 'neighborhood.' They all hate ISIS, have been enemies for years. We are 7000 miles away and will crush ISIS again if they come anywhere near us!"

You don't have to know a lot about Middle Eastern politics to understand what Trump is doing: He's abandoning allies who have fought with us for years because the war no longer suits him. Why would he do this? Ostensibly, he says, it's because he doesn't want our military involved in areas in which we have no immediate short term interests.

But also, because it's probably what Russia wants, and when you have a President who owes his Presidency to the Russians (and perhaps his re-election) you can't overlook those motives because even warmongering John Bolton tried to protect the Kurds. With a President known to make decisions to benefit only himself financially, you can't overlook that motivation, either.

Just left Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday where #TrumpTowers was just opened--magnificent!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2012

Don't know what to say this morning. The Kurds have long been a close ally of our country. Trump just gave the go-ahead to have them slaughtered in exchange for a new hotel.

— Charlotte Clymer🏳️‍🌈 (@cmclymer) October 7, 2019

This is such a huge departure for the United States that even Linsday Graham is pissed off.

* Ensures ISIS comeback.
* Forces Kurds to align with Assad and Iran.
* Destroys Turkey's relationship with U.S. Congress.
* Will be a stain on America's honor for abandoning the Kurds.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 7, 2019

Graham took to Fox & Friends to speak out against the President.

Lindsey Graham calls in to Fox & Friends & calls Trump's decision to abandon the Kurds "impulsive."

"I hope I'm making myself clear how shortsighted & irresponsible this decision is in my view," he says. "This to me is just unnerving to its core." pic.twitter.com/URH0DVA1bo

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 7, 2019

The New York Times won't use say the word "lie" in reference to Trump, but Graham will:

"the biggest lie being told by the administration" is that ISIS has been defeated -- @LindseyGrahamSC uses the L-word about @realDonaldTrump just now on Fox and Friends.

— Karen Tumulty (@ktumulty) October 7, 2019

Even Brian Kilmeade at Fox & Friends is furious:

Brian Kilmeade fights with his co-hosts over Trump throwing Syrian Kurds under the bus: "What kind of message is that to the next ally that wants to side with us? ... All we did is arm them, and they did all the work. And now we say 'good luck. Good luck surviving.' Disaster." pic.twitter.com/ktyDqsM4lS

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) October 7, 2019

With this move, Trump is endangering our relationship with all of our allies:

What the US just did in quitting Northern Syria and abandoning one of our strongest allies the Kurds sends a chilling message to would-be allies around the world: don't bother committing to us, because we aren't committed to you.

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) October 7, 2019

We must always have the backs of our allies, if we expect them to have our back. The Kurds were instrumental in our successful fight against ISIS in Syria. Leaving them to die is a big mistake. #TurkeyIsNotOurFriend

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 7, 2019

Ultimately, the problem with Trump is that he doesn't understand foreign policy and given all of what we know about him, we have no idea whose interests he's serving here, except his own. And apparently, that's worth the literal lives of some of our strongest allies.

I'm hearing from a person who has been involved with, and an advocate for the Kurds because they've fought bravely with us, and they *love* America and Americans.

"I don't know how they bought him but they bought him." https://t.co/t66KobMdB4

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) October 7, 2019