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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented U.S. President Donald Trump with a personalized, gold-plated revolver and ammunition during Trump's visit to Ankara for last week's NATO summit, Middle East Eye's (MEE) Ragip Soylu reported, citing multiple unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.
According to MEE, Erdogan gave similar personalized revolvers to all attending NATO leaders, but Trump's was the only one reported to include gold plating.
A source speaking to Türkiye Today said that 12-gram gold has been used for "Trump's revolver."
Sources familiar with the gift told MEE the weapon is identical to the Gumusay .357 Magnum revolver and was presented in a wooden box bearing the Turkish flag and NATO logo, with a placard inside describing it as "the first revolver-type handgun produced in our country."
Türkiye Today's source said that while MEE reported the grip section as gold-plated, the chrome-finished and, to be more precise and understandable, reflective portions of the weapon were all gold-plated.
After receiving Erdogan's gift, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney joked that his gift of maple syrup "kind of undermatched" Erdogan's offering.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was the first to mention the highly unusual gift, telling journalists on the flight back from two days of talks in Ankara that he and others received a revolver engraved with their names.
Alongside the gun sitting in a red box lined in black were six live rounds and a note exempting the weapons from export controls.
It was a surprising gift to say the least, several officials from the different alliance member states said, and gave rise to some "insane" scenes among the various delegations' security teams.
"An unusual gift from President Erdogan at the NATO summit: a Magnum revolver with ammunition, engraved with my name," Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said on X.
Several revolvers, including those belonging to Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, have for now remained in the Turkish capital.
And for good reason: depending on the laws in force, transporting firearms is often far from straightforward, especially when they are fully functional.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney took his revolver with him but left the ammunition in Türkiye, Canadian officials said. They did not explain why.
The weapon given to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson "will have to be transported to Sweden in accordance with all applicable procedures," his team told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a statement.
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