Trump vows to lift Turkey’s sanctions and calls the F-35 “the best plane by far” — reopening a door he shut in 2019. A federal law and Israeli objections could still stand in the way.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday his administration will lift sanctions on Turkey and is considering selling the country F-35 fighter jets, reversing a ban his own first-term administration imposed on Ankara in 2019.
Trump made the announcement while sitting beside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during bilateral talks on the opening day of a NATO summit in Ankara — the first such gathering hosted by Turkey and the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the country since 2015. Any actual transfer of F-35s remains blocked, however, by a 2020 federal law that bars the sale unless Turkey gives up the Russian-made S-400 air defense system it acquired in 2019, the same purchase that got Turkey expelled from the F-35 program in the first place. The stakes are significant: Turkey commands NATO’s second-largest army, with more than 480,000 active-duty personnel, and controls the strategically vital Bosphorus Strait linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Trump Calls the F-35 ‘the Best Plane’
“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off. It’s time to do that, OK? We don’t want to sanction friends. It’s very simple,” Trump said before closed-door talks with Erdoğan, according to TRT World, Reuters and Al Jazeera.
On the F-35 itself, Trump said: “It’s a decision we’re going to make. We have a very good relationship. … It’s a great plane, it’s the best, currently the best plane by far, and it’s certainly something we will consider,” according to Simple Flying and Al Jazeera.
Asked about Turkey’s continued possession of the Russian S-400 system, Trump said, “I have no concerns at all about anything,” ABC News reported. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were working on removing the sanctions. Erdoğan, for his part, said Turkey was hoping for a “positive result.”
The New York Times reported before the summit that Trump was expected to tell Erdoğan he was prepared to restore Turkey’s F-35 participation, with one option under discussion being an exchange of letters between the two presidents to begin a formal restoration process.
A 2020 Law Still Blocks Any Sale
Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program in July 2019 after accepting delivery of the S-400, a purchase the U.S. said was incompatible with the stealth jet’s security. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries, or SSB, in December 2020 under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA.
Lifting those sanctions does not clear the way for an F-35 sale. Section 1245 of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act bars any transfer of F-35 aircraft, parts or technical data to Turkey unless the secretaries of defense and state jointly certify to Congress, at least 90 days in advance, that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400, has given credible assurances it won’t reacquire the system, and hasn’t purchased other Russian defense equipment that could compromise the jet since 2019. No presidential waiver exists for the requirement.
Rubio testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 6 that Turkey cannot rejoin the F-35 program under current law as long as it retains the S-400. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said as recently as September 2025: “The S-400 air defense systems are in our inventory. There is no change in our position regarding the S-400 issue.”
Congress and Israel Push Back
The reversal is drawing bipartisan opposition in Washington. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reportedly said, “I hope this is wrong,” according to Breaking Defense, in response to reports of the reversal. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “The law is clear: Turkey cannot receive the F-35, and CAATSA sanctions should not be lifted while it continues to possess Russia’s S-400 air defense system.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also objected. In a CNN interview Tuesday, Netanyahu said selling F-35s to Turkey would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.” In the same CNN interview, he described Turkey as “a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America and chants ‘Death to America’ from that side of the aisle.” A day earlier, Netanyahu told Fox News, “I don’t think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets, because that’ll upset the power balance in the Middle East.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled a scheduled meeting with Netanyahu on Wednesday at which the F-35 sale was expected to come up, an Israeli source told Reuters.
The F-35 Lightning II
The F-35 is Lockheed Martin’s single-engine, fifth-generation stealth fighter, combining stealth, sensor fusion and network connectivity. The F-35A variant Turkey originally sought had an average flyaway cost of $82.5 million for recent production lots, and the program’s total lifecycle cost is estimated at nearly $1.7 trillion, the most expensive weapons system in U.S. history, according to the Government Accountability Office. Lockheed Martin delivered a record 191 F-35s in 2025, surpassing the previous mark of 142 set in 2021. The jet flies with the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, along with allies including Israel, Britain, Australia and Japan.
Turkey’s Fighter Fleet, Then and Now
Turkey ceremonially received its first two F-35s at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, facility on June 21, 2018, but the jets were used only for Turkish pilot training at Luke Air Force Base and never delivered to Turkish soil. The U.S. Air Force ultimately kept all six F-35 airframes originally built for Turkey. Turkey had planned to buy at least 100 F-35As and had already paid $1.4 billion toward the program before its expulsion.
Since then, Turkey has relied on an aging fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons, signing a deal for 40 F-16 Block 70 jets in 2024. In October 2025, Turkey signed a $10.7 billion deal with the United Kingdom for 20 new Eurofighter Typhoon jets — the first time in more than 70 years Turkey had ordered a fighter jet that wasn’t American-made. First deliveries are expected in 2030.
Turkey is also developing its own fifth-generation fighter, the KAAN, built by Turkish Aerospace Industries. The twin-engine jet made its maiden flight on Feb. 21, 2024, a 13-minute flight from Mürted airfield near Ankara. Serial production deliveries are now targeted for 2029, with an indigenous engine, the TEI-TF35000, expected to be integrated around 2032. Early production KAANs will instead use General Electric F110-GE-129 engines, an interim arrangement that has drawn some of the same objections as the F-35 talks; Netanyahu specifically cited Turkey receiving “engines for their fighter aircraft” in his opposition.
Turkey acquired two S-400 batteries from Russia in 2019 for $2.5 billion. The system remains inactive and has been excluded from Turkey’s new “Steel Dome” air defense project, for which Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler has said Ankara is “open to all cooperation” that meets its security needs, including the U.S. Patriot system and the Franco-Italian SAMP/T. In December 2025, Turkey raised the possibility of returning the S-400 to Russia, though the Kremlin denied any such offer was made.
Key Takeaways
- Trump announced Tuesday at a NATO summit in Ankara that his administration will lift CAATSA sanctions on Turkey and is weighing an F-35 sale.
- A 2020 U.S. law, NDAA Section 1245, still bars any F-35 transfer while Turkey keeps Russia’s S-400 air defense system.
- Opposition is bipartisan, and Netanyahu warned the sale would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.”
- Turkey is developing its own fifth-generation KAAN fighter, with production targeted for 2029.
- Turkey signed a $10.7 billion deal for 20 Eurofighter Typhoons from the U.K. in October 2025 as an interim measure.