WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump today indicated his support for allowing Turkey to rejoin the F-35 program, setting the stage for a potential reversal of a policy from his first administration — and a likely battle with Congress.
Speaking next to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Trump said bringing Turkey back into the fifth-generation fighter program is “something certainly we’d consider” and said it’s “a decision we’re going to make.”
“We have a very good relationship. I would think that many people, I can tell you many people, including the people sitting right here think, why wouldn’t we do that?” Trump said ahead of the NATO summit. “We have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey’s been in many ways been much more loyal than other countries that we would think would be loyal.”
Turkey was an early partner in the F-35 program, and ultimately planned to buy 100 of the conventional F-35A model. Its first jet officially rolled off the line in 2018. But in July 2019, the first Trump administration declared that it was removing Turkey from the F-35 program after Erdogan decided to procure the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, which US and NATO governments worried would be able to gather intelligence on the Joint Strike Fighter.
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A top Pentagon official estimated at the time that losing Turkey-based production for the F-35 would cost Ankara around $9 billion in lost profits over the life of the fighter jet, while it would cost $500-$600 million for the Pentagon to bring that production back to the US.
Today in a follow up question about legal sanctions applied to Ankara through the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Trump was more direct.
“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off,” he said, indicating work is underway between the Departments of State, Defense and Treasury. “We’re going to be taking the sanctions off. It’s time to do that. Okay? We don’t want to sanction friends. It’s very simple.”
However, Congress will have a say. On top of the CAATSA restrictions, the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act prohibits the Pentagon from transferring F-35s to Turkey as long as Turkey still possess the S-400, according to a 2025 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report.
“Six Turkish-owned F-35s remain in storage in the United States, and the $1.7 billion paid for the F-35s apparently is still in U.S. hands,” per CRS.
Congressional opposition to giving Turkey the F-35 has been bipartisan in the last five years, meaning that Trump may need to convince key lawmakers that Turkey has ameliorated security concerns before moving forward. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, has already indicated concerns about the potential to let Turkey back into the program.