This is not the first time that Trump has demonstrated an affinity for Erdogan. In July 2016, amid a major civil-liberties crackdown in Turkey after a failed coup, Trump praised Erdogan for “turning it around.” And his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn registered as a paid foreign agent for Erdogan’s government shortly after he was ousted from his position within the administration.

So, did Trump’s conflict of interest in Turkey influence his decision to reach out to Erdogan?

Answering that question demonstrates the difficulty of truly reckoning with how Trump’s financial interests interact with his presidency. There’s nothing to suggest that there was a quid-pro-quo, that Erdogan somehow bribed Trump for his approval or extorted him by threatening repercussions for his business in Istanbul. Nor is there evidence that Trump was actively considering his business when he decided to pick up the phone.

Instead, Trump’s actions point to a subtler type of influence. Whether or not he wants it to be—indeed, whether or not he even knows it—it is natural that Trump’s attitude toward Erdogan and Turkey is shaped in part by the fact that he has business interests within the country. For at least the (almost exactly) five years since Trump Towers in Istanbul opened, Trump has profited from his relationship, however tenuous, to Turkey’s government and its leader. Pecuniary interactions with other people shape a person’s opinion, typically for the better. Moreover, Trump’s business partners in the country are (at least, right now) apparently pro-Erdogan, as evidenced in part by the fact that one of them owns CNN Turk, which has been generally supportive of Erdogan, including broadcasting his first message after the failed coup attempt in July.

Trump’s friendly disposition toward Erdogan isn’t especially surprising, then. Even beyond Trump’s oft-noted penchant for strongmen around the world, everything prior to that phone call on Monday night indicates the kind of positive relationship that would lead to one person calling another after a major victory.

Trump’s businesses create sticky situations like this all over the world. Perhaps the most direct analog is his property in the Philippines, whose president, Rodrigo Duterte, has led a brutal crackdown on drugs, but whom Trump praised during a phone call in December. Elsewhere, a branding deal in Indonesia links Trump to one politician implicated in a $4 billion extortion scandal and another linked to an Islamic-nationalist group seeking to oust Jakarta’s Christian governor. Another property in Azerbaijan involves notoriously corrupt oligarchs with ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Should he be required to weigh in on affairs within one of those countries, it’s anybody’s guess whether the residual fellow-feeling engendered by his business interests might affect Trump’s response.