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Trump's Push for F-35 Deal with Turkey Sets Up Potential Clash with Congress
(Wall Street Journal) Robbie Gramer - President Trump said Tuesday he would consider selling the F-35 jet fighter to Turkey, setting up a potential showdown with U.S. lawmakers who have long opposed such a deal. During his visit to Ankara for a NATO summit meeting on Tuesday, he said, "it's something certainly we'd consider." In 2017, Erdogan approved Turkey's import of a Russian S-400 air-defense system, a move that triggered American sanctions. The first Trump administration removed Turkey from the F-35 fighter program in response. U.S. officials are concerned that the Russian air-defense system could gather data about the F-35, including its radar signature, and send it to Moscow. In 2020, Congress passed a law that explicitly barred the U.S. from allowing Turkey back into the F-35 program until Turkey agrees to remove all S-400 systems and commits to never acquiring them or other Russian systems that could compromise the high-end jet fighter. Congress remains staunchly opposed to offering Ankara a way back into the program unless it relinquishes its Russian air-defense systems. U.S. lawmakers who traveled to Ankara for the NATO summit said they would welcome Turkey rejoining the F-35 program if there is a solution on the S-400 first. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the issue needed to be "dealt with in a way that doesn't give Russia the ability to use the S-400 to figure out how we're building the F-35."