Donald Trump just dropped a foreign policy bombshell at the NATO summit in Ankara. Sitting next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Trump announced he's looking to reverse his own 2019 ban on selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. He went a step further, vowing to strip away the economic sanctions Washington slapped on Ankara.
"We don't want to sanction friends," Trump told reporters. "It's very simple."
Except it isn't simple. It's an absolute mess. Trump is setting up a massive brawl with Congress, terrifying Israel, and upending years of established American defense strategy.
The rationale driving this sudden shift isn't about complex geopolitical chess. It's about personal relationships and transactional loyalty. Trump openly complained that other NATO allies aren't pulling their weight, while praising Erdoğan. "Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries," Trump said. He basically admitted he doesn't care about the money; he wants loyalty.
The Russian Missile Problem That Started It All
You can't understand why this F-35 reversal is a big deal without looking back at why Turkey got kicked out of the program in the first place. Turkey wasn't just a buyer; it was a primary manufacturing partner. Ankara planned to buy 100 of the advanced stealth fighters and was making key components for the global fleet.
Then Erdoğan bought the S-400 air defense missile system from Russia.
The Pentagon went into a panic. The F-35 is a flying computer designed to evade radar. If Turkey parked a Russian radar tracking system next to a fleet of American stealth jets, Moscow could easily gather intelligence on how to track and shoot down the F-35. The first Trump administration drew a hard line: you can have the Russian missiles, or you can have the American jets. You can't have both. Turkey chose Russia, and in 2019, Washington kicked them out of the program.
Six Turkish-owned F-35s have been sitting in climate-controlled storage in the U.S. ever since, while $1.7 billion of Turkish cash remains stuck in American accounts.
The Legal Brick Wall in Washington
Trump thinks he can just wave a wand and hand over the keys to the jets. He can't. Congress anticipated this exact scenario and locked the ban into federal law.
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) explicitly prohibits transferring F-35s to Turkey unless the administration certifies that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 system. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted just last month that the administration is bound by law to maintain these restrictions.
Capitol Hill isn't in a mood to compromise. Bipartisan opposition to Erdoğan has only hardened over the last few years. Representative Mike Lawler and Representative Brad Sherman recently led a coalition of lawmakers warning the White House that selling these jets would send a disastrous message. They pointed directly to Turkey's aggressive rhetoric against Israel and its cozy ties with Iran. Republican Senator John Cornyn from Texas didn't hide his annoyance either, posting on social media that he hopes the reports of a sale are wrong.
If Trump wants to push this through, his team has to find a legal loophole. Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is conducting a review to see if Turkey has complied with the law, or if they can find a creative workaround. One idea making the rounds is shipping the Russian S-400 missiles to a neutral third country. But Russia has end-user agreements on those missiles, meaning Moscow can legally block Turkey from handing them off to anyone else.
Furious Pushback From the Middle East
The moment Trump opened his mouth in Ankara, alarm bells started ringing in Jerusalem. Israel operates its own modified version of the stealth fighter, the F-35 "Adir," and relies on its technological edge to dominate Middle Eastern skies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately slammed the proposal during a television interview, warning that putting F-35s in Turkish hands would destroy the power balance in the region. Netanyahu pointed directly to Turkey's aggressive regional aspirations.
The timing is incredibly awkward. The White House recently bypassed major congressional objections to push through a $700 million sale of American jet engines to power Turkey’s new homegrown fighter jet, the KAAN. Adding the actual F-35 to that mix feels like a bridge too far for regional allies who view Erdoğan as unpredictable.
What Happens Next
Trump is betting that his personal chemistry with Erdoğan can bypass institutional guardrails. The White House is banking on a newly designed wave of European defense spending to distract from the Turkey drama. At the exact same summit, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced tens of billions in new defense deals, including Saab surveillance planes and Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton drones, to prove to Trump that Europe is taking its own defense seriously.
But a few drone sales won't satisfy a skeptical U.S. Congress when it comes to safeguarding America's crown jewel aerospace technology.
If you're watching how this play unfolds, keep your eyes on two specific indicators. First, watch for any movement regarding the physical relocation of Turkey's S-400 missile batteries out of the country. Second, monitor the upcoming defense appropriations votes in the Senate. If Trump can't convince key defense committee Republicans to play ball, those six F-35s sitting in American warehouses aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
