Trump Plans to Lift Turkey Sanctions and Weigh F-35 Sale
President Trump signals he will remove sanctions on Turkey and consider selling advanced F-35 jets, marking a potential diplomatic reset.
President Donald Trump has indicated he intends to lift sanctions currently imposed on Turkey and will make a decision on whether to sell Ankara the advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets, according to Reuters. The announcement signals a notable shift in Washington's posture toward a NATO ally that has long occupied an uneasy position within the alliance.
Turkey was originally removed from the F-35 program in 2019 after Ankara purchased the Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missile defense system, a move that triggered U.S. sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, known as CAATSA. The decision reflected longstanding American concerns that integrating Russian defense technology into NATO's operational framework posed unacceptable security risks, particularly around the protection of F-35 stealth capabilities.
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Trump's latest signals suggest a transactional recalibration rather than a fundamental policy reversal — a hallmark of his approach to alliance management. By dangling both sanctions relief and potential access to one of the world's most sophisticated fighter jets, Washington appears to be leveraging Turkey's strategic importance, particularly given Ankara's geographic influence over the Black Sea region and its role as a mediating power in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The move carries significant geopolitical weight. Turkey has positioned itself as an indispensable broker in recent years, maintaining dialogue with both Moscow and Kyiv. Rewarding that posture with sanctions relief and advanced military hardware could reinforce Ankara's leverage — but it also risks alienating other NATO partners who view the S-400 purchase as an unresolved breach of alliance norms. How the administration structures any eventual F-35 deal, and what conditions it attaches to sanctions removal, will be closely watched by defense analysts and allied governments alike.
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