U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled a possible breakthrough on Türkiye’s request to rejoin the F-35 program, with Washington reportedly expected to move forward with jet engine sales to Ankara for the KAAN fighter jets ahead of the NATO summit.
“I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make him very happy,” Trump said when a reporter inquired about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wanting the jets and whether he would be bringing a “big gift bag” with him to Ankara during the NATO summit there next month.
During his meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte at the White House on June 24, Trump said, “People don’t know how big Türkiye is in terms of the military. It’s very strong. They have a lot of our equipment, a very strong military, because of him.”
The U.S. president said that if the summit was not taking place in Türkiye and being hosted by Erdoğan, “I don’t think I would have gone to it.”
“I’m going out of respect to President Erdoğan,” Trump said.
In 2019, under the first term of Trump, the U.S. suspended Türkiye from the F-35 program after objecting to its buying a Russian S-400 missile defense system, claiming the Russian system would endanger the fighter jets.
When Trump was asked what needed to occur for the F-35 deal to be finalized, the president referred the question to Vice President JD Vance, who said officials including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were reviewing the issue “right now.”
“This is really a congressional thing, and ensuring that Türkiye has complied with American law so they can get the F-35s. We will announce that when the review is complete,” Vance said.
The remarks came as several media reports said that the Trump administration is expected to move forward with a proposed $750 million sale of F-110 jet engines to Türkiye despite objections from a senior Democratic lawmaker.
The engines, made by General Electric, will be used to power Türkiye’s first domestically developed fighter jet, KAAN.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, placed a hold on the sale over Ankara’s continued possession of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system, as well as concerns related to Syria and Greece.
The administration has informed Congress that it intends to proceed with the sale of the jet engines, despite the hold placed on the deal.
“Late yesterday, the administration informed me it would once again bypass congressional review for more than $700 million in defense articles to the Turkish military in yet another deeply troubling example of this administration’s open contempt for Congress’s oversight authority,” Meeks said in a statement.
