President Erdoğan, in particular, has been meticulous in nurturing relations with US President Donald Trump, even securing a Washington meeting this week. Against this backdrop, Bahçeli’s sudden enthusiasm for Moscow and Beijing looks less like strategy and more like a veiled warning aimed at Erdoğan himself. Bahçeli’s TRC alliance proposal may be intended to put pressure on Erdoğan ahead of his visit to Washington and his meeting with Trump. When asked in New York about Bahçeli’s TRC alliance call, Erdoğan claimed he “couldn’t quite follow the issue.” That answer was not only unconvincing but also revealing. In the end, Bahçeli’s TRC gambit is not about Russia or China.