President Trump used his sit-down with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Ankara to make a move Washington had resisted for years.
He said the United States will lift the sanctions that had blocked defense sales to Turkey.
And he signaled the F-35 door may not be closed after all.
Trump said he is considering selling Turkey the F-35 stealth fighter again, while stopping short of announcing any finished deal. This is a decision he says the administration is still weighing.
Trump lifts defense sanctions on Turkey, clearing way to give Erdogan F-35s – despite GOP, Israeli opposition https://t.co/CHe3p2c0Df pic.twitter.com/wwd3XVSL4p
— New York Post (@nypost) July 7, 2026
The backstory here is Turkey’s 2019 purchase of Russia’s S-400 air defense system.
That buy got Turkey kicked out of the F-35 program and hit with CAATSA sanctions in 2020. The worry was straightforward: a Russian radar system sitting next to an American stealth jet is a data collection problem waiting to happen.
Trump’s pitch is that you do not treat loyal allies that way.
He praised Erdogan, said the two have good chemistry, and made a point that lands with anyone who watched the recent Iran conflict.
Turkey, he noted, could have lined up on the other side. It did not.
The New York Post reported from Ankara that Trump said Tuesday he would lift the sanctions restricting military equipment sales to Turkey.
The Post tied the fight back to the S-400 purchase that pulled Turkey out of F-35 eligibility and triggered the CAATSA penalties. The issue has always been the same: Russian air-defense hardware sitting beside America’s premier advanced stealth fighter program.
It also laid out the opposition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox & Friends that Turkey should not get F-35s or the engines that power them because of the regional balance.
Rep. Mike Lawler warned that Turkey’s conduct raises serious national-security concerns and questioned whether Ankara can be trusted as a strategic partner.
The same report noted Trump’s argument for the move: Turkey stayed out of the Iran fight on the wrong side and remains a NATO ally whose cooperation still matters.
Trump, for his part, said the U.S. does not want to sanction its friends.
Trump says he will lift Turkey sanctions, decide on selling F-35s https://t.co/oSBoDyVvyn https://t.co/oSBoDyVvyn
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 7, 2026
NOTUS reported that Trump hinted at both the sanctions relief and the F-35 reversal during the bilateral meeting ahead of the summit.
According to that report, Trump described Turkey as more loyal than some countries Washington expects loyalty from, and framed the F-35 question as something the administration would consider rather than something already decided.
Trump also said he worked the sanctions issue with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The legal path is more complicated than the political announcement. The F-35 ban and the CAATSA sanctions are woven into federal law, which means Congress and a certification process still sit on top of any full reversal.
Lifting the sanctions is one lever. Clearing the jets is a heavier lift.
NOTUS also noted the original American offer to Turkey: buy the Patriot system instead of the Russian S-400. Ankara went with Moscow, and the fallout has shaped the relationship ever since.
Trump hinted at potential plans to lift U.S. sanctions and reverse a ban on the sale of F-35s to Turkey during a bilateral meeting Tuesday with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.https://t.co/BgeQA7FKKw
— NOTUS (@NOTUSreports) July 7, 2026
The Times of Israel reported that Trump said he would certainly consider selling the F-35s while sitting with Erdogan.
Erdogan said he hoped for a positive result and claimed Trump had previously promised Turkey five of the jets.
The Israeli concern runs deeper than one summit. Israel wants to protect its qualitative military edge in the region, a principle U.S. law has long required Washington to honor, and Erdogan’s anti-Israel posture makes handing Turkey top-tier American airpower a hard sell in Jerusalem.
The report also floated one possible off-ramp discussed in recent weeks: moving the S-400 system to a third country. Nothing has been finalized on that front, and Russia’s end-user rules may complicate any transfer.
It also underscored that the fight is diplomatic and legal. Congress wrote restrictions around Turkey’s S-400 problem, so any clean F-35 path would likely require proof that Ankara no longer possesses or operates the Russian system.
Strip away the noise and the play is clear enough.
Trump is using leverage to pull a NATO ally back into the American weapons lane, rewarding Erdogan for staying out of the Iran fight and testing whether Turkey can be brought back inside the tent after years of drifting toward Moscow.
The sanctions are coming off. The F-35s are the open question, and that answer will say a lot about whether Erdogan is willing to give up the Russian hardware that started this whole standoff.
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