The setting was Ankara, the optics were deliberate, and the message from President Donald Trump was about as unambiguous as a shrug can get. Seated across from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a bilateral meeting in the Turkish capital, Trump told reporters he had zero concerns about selling F-35 stealth fighters to Turkey — a country that has been locked out of the program for the better part of six years.
The remarks landed hard on Capitol Hill, where members of both parties have been cooling on the idea since it resurfaced. The core objection hasn't changed: Turkey bought Russia's S-400 missile defense system in 2019, which triggered its removal from the F-35 production program under U.S. law. Critics argue that selling the jets now — without Ankara dismantling or offloading the S-400 — creates a live intelligence exposure risk for one of NATO's most advanced platforms.
Trump's posture in Ankara suggested he isn't spending much time on that calculus. No formal sale agreement was announced out of the meeting, but the president's public comfort with the deal shifts the diplomatic terrain noticeably. Erdoğan has been pushing for F-35 re-entry for years; the bilateral meeting handed him a visible endorsement, even without a signed contract.
The pushback is unlikely to quiet down. The Senate has previously moved to attach restrictions on Turkey F-35 transfers to defense legislation, and allied governments have questions about what a Turkish re-entry into the program would mean for shared NATO intelligence architecture. The next pressure point will likely arrive when — or if — a formal sale request moves through congressional notification. That clock has not yet started.