Hasta La Gadget!

President Donald Trump reportedly called Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to congratulate him after Erdogan narrowly emerged victorious from a referendum to inflate his political powers, according to Turkish state media.

The referendum process occurred on an “unlevel playing field,” according to international observers in Turkey who monitored the lead-up to the vote. Not only did some “no” voters face intimidation at the polls, the observers said Monday, but the ballots themselves didn’t even state what the vote was about.

Preliminary results showed 51.4 percent of voters had voted “yes.” The changes could keep Erdogan in power for more than 10 more years, and allow him to select and remove members of his cabinet unilaterally.

German chancellor Angela Merkel had a slightly different reaction to the news. “The tight referendum result shows how deeply divided Turkish society is and that means a big responsibility for the Turkish leadership and for President Erdogan personally,” she said.

Other countries to offer their congratulations to Erdogan included Qatar, Azerbeijan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, Turkish state media said.

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