President Trump, during his first day at the NATO summit in Turkey, signaled openness to selling F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to host nation Turkey, a policy reversal that would override years of congressional objections and defense-industry lobbying. The move would reintegrate Ankara into the fifth-generation fighter program after it was expelled in 2019 for purchasing the Russian S-400 missile system.
Defense Lobby vs. Foreign Policy
The F-35 program has been a lucrative trough for American defense contractors, with Lockheed Martin and its subsidiaries spreading production across hundreds of congressional districts. Keeping Turkey out of the program limited the number of airframes produced, but it also ensured that sensitive manufacturing jobs remained on American soil. A sale to Turkey would likely see offsets and co-production demands that ship assembly work to Turkish plants, directly threatening skilled American labor.
Lockheed Martin, which has spent over $14 million annually lobbying Congress, has historically pushed to expand the F-35 buyer pool to sustain production lines. Re-admitting Turkey serves corporate balance sheets but raises questions about whether American workers will pay the price through workshare agreements that prioritize a foreign ally over U.S. industrial capacity.
Erdoğan’s Balancing Act
The president’s personal rapport with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan appears to be driving the shift. Turkey remains a key NATO logistics hub, hosting Incirlik Air Base, which has been used for operations in the Middle East. However, Erdoğan’s simultaneous operation of the Russian S-400 presents an unresolved intelligence threat, as Pentagon officials have long warned that operating the F-35 alongside Russian systems could expose critical stealth vulnerabilities to Moscow.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield noted that any sale would require strict interoperability conditions, but Trump’s direct engagement style bypasses traditional policy reviews. The administration has not yet released an impact assessment detailing what manufacturing concessions American workers would lose, nor has it fully briefed the congressional committees that imposed the original CAATSA sanctions blocking the sale. As tensions with China demand a more robust domestic defense industrial base, sending advanced production overseas to a regime that antagonizes Eastern Mediterranean allies is an extraordinary foreign-policy gamble that places corporate profit and personal diplomacy above American primacy.