President Donald Trump made a lot of waves at this year’s NATO summit in Ankara. And one of the biggest was when Trump suggested he might be willing to lift the six-year-old ban on sales of American F-35 stealth fighter jets to the meeting’s host country, Turkey.Turkey used to be a partner in building the F-35 as a member of an international consortium designed to ensure healthy sales of the Lockheed Martin planes to worthy allies.That was before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to acquire Russia’s most advanced air defense system, the S-400, which is not only incompatible with NATO systems but could also compromise the F-35’s highly classified radar-evading technology.
Concerns that operating the S-400 alongside the F-35 could allow the Russian system to gather data about the plane, including its radar signature, and transmit that to Moscow, prompted the first Trump administration to boot Turkey from the program.
President Donald Trump with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Turkey on July 7. (Alex Brandon/AP Images)
In 2020, Congress codified the ban, unless and until Turkey got rid of its S-400s, and committed never to buy Russian systems in the future.And that’s where things stood, until, in Trump’s words, Erdogan “rolled out the red carpet,” and feted Trump upon his arrival for the NATO summit by naming a newly renovated terminal at a Turkish air base in his honor.“We are great friends. The president has done an incredible job,” Trump said at a meeting with Erdogan at his presidential complex. “Just landing at the airport, to see such a beautiful airport, and to have a building named after me … That was very nice. The airport is absolutely beautiful. The roads coming in were brand new and beautiful.”Trump was feeling loved, and he gushed about his “very special relationship” with Erdogan and the “good chemistry” he’s had with him “right from the beginning.”So, when a reporter asked, “Are you going to sell F-35s to Turkey?” Trump was quick to say he’s considering it. “Why wouldn’t we do that? We have a better relationship with Turkey and Turkey’s been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,” Trump said, “So yeah, it’s something certainly we’d consider.”“What about the Russian missile defense systems?” a reporter followed up. “I have no concerns about anything having to do with Turkey,” Trump said. “I would say the relationship with Turkey right now is better, probably, than it’s ever been.”Capitol Hill concerns
