President Trump is expected to tell President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey that he is prepared to restore the country to a program that would allow it to purchase F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban Mr. Trump himself imposed seven years ago on national security grounds.
But the shift by Mr. Trump, who is heading to a NATO summit in Ankara this week and has said he was preparing to bring a gift that would make Mr. Erdogan “very happy,” could face opposition in Congress, which could seek to block it.
Four senior administration officials described the coming change in policy, after weeks of behind-the-scenes work by national security officials to break the stalemate. Though officials differed some on the details of how Mr. Trump would seek to work around congressional and legal restrictions on his action, they said they expected Mr. Trump to at least signal his intent to get the fighter jets into Turkey’s hands — though it is uncertain when.
It is unclear exactly what Mr. Trump will say, and officials cautioned that he could change his mind. He is unpredictable even to his own staff. But administration officials suggested there could be an exchange of letters on the subject between the two leaders to get the process underway. When asked for comment, a White House spokeswoman pointed to the president’s past comments.
In 2019, during Mr. Trump’s first term, Turkey was thrown out of the F-35 program because it bought advanced S-400 antiaircraft systems from Russia. At the time, Washington’s fear was that Turkey could train the S-400s on the newly provided F-35s, and that Russia would learn how to deal with the fighter jet’s stealth and other missile-avoidance capabilities.
But Mr. Erdogan ranks among the strongmen leaders Mr. Trump most admires, and Vice President JD Vance recently indicated that Mr. Trump had ordered administration officials to find a way to get the Turkish leader the jets he has made clear he desires.
They must overcome a law passed by Congress in 2020 that blocks the sale of F-35s unless the administration concludes that Turkey no longer possesses the Russian systems.
It appears that in order to accomplish that goal, Turkey’s S-400s — many of which are still in their shipping containers — may be handed over to a third party, according to one administration official who has been deeply involved in the talks.
A second official said the mechanism had not been worked out yet. Four years ago, there was talk of transferring the missiles to Ukraine, where they could have been used to counter Russian attacks, but that effort fell apart. It seems unlikely that Mr. Trump or Mr. Erdogan would be willing to sell the powerful Russian systems to Ukraine today. There has been talk of making the systems inoperable, perhaps by removing key parts.
Turkey has been lobbying furiously for readmission to the F-35 program for years, but until now has been unwilling to give up the air defense systems it bought from Russia — even while sitting in the NATO alliance, and hosting an American base where tactical nuclear weapons are stored for potential use in a NATO conflict with Moscow.
In 2019, the White House was clear about its reasons for kicking Turkey out of the program, at a cost to the United States of roughly half a billion dollars.
“The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities,” a White House statement said at the time. “Turkey has been a longstanding and trusted partner and NATO ally for over 65 years, but accepting the S-400 undermines the commitments all NATO allies made to each other to move away from Russian systems.”
But Mr. Trump was never comfortable with the decision, and often blamed his immediate predecessor, President Barack Obama, for the conditions that required it. Ever since retaking office, Mr. Trump has mused, publicly and privately, about reversing it.
Last month, sitting in the Oval Office with Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, Mr. Trump was asked about the F-35s and said he would bring Mr. Erdogan a gift that would make him “very happy.” Mr. Vance said the issue had been referred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and added: “Pete and the entire team are reviewing this right now, because there are certain things that we have to certify have happened” if the administration was “to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that.”
Mr. Trump later said, “We will work it out.”
It turns out that working it out is not easy. In June 2025, Ambassador Thomas J. Barrack Jr. predicted that the standoff with Turkey on the F-35s would be resolved by the end of that year and indicated that Congress would support the decision. But that resolution did not come, and Mr. Trump is now facing the possibility that this Congress — or the next one — may not go along. Some Republicans, including Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, who leads the Foreign Relations Committee, have been sharp skeptics.
Any move to allow the sale of the jets has also drawn opposition from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who has said it could upset the balance of power in the Middle East.
The first Trump administration was so concerned that Russia could use the Turkish program to collect intelligence on the F-35 stealth systems that it imposed sanctions on Turkey’s defense procurement agency. Those sanctions remain in place.
Meanwhile, F-35s paid for by Turkey but never delivered are stored in the United States, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
Mr. Trump will arrive in Ankara on Tuesday at a delicate moment for the trans-Atlantic alliance.
He has, for years, complained that European allies do not contribute enough military spending to the alliance. While he seemed briefly mollified at last year’s summit when all NATO members except for Spain pledged to spend 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense, and another 1.5 percent for related infrastructure, his sense of accomplishment was short-lived. He has begun demanding faster increases and has grown particularly incensed in recent months over what he perceives as a lack of support from the alliance during the U.S. war with Iran.
During his meeting with Mr. Rutte, the president said he was attending this year’s summit only because Mr. Erdogan was hosting it and asked him to attend.
Mr. Trump has also splintered the alliance over his posture toward President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia amid the war with Ukraine. Mr. Trump has adopted some of Mr. Putin’s talking points about the conflict and infamously sparred with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the Oval Office last year. Mr. Trump is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Mr. Zelensky on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump plans to meet Mr. Erdogan just after he arrives from Washington on Tuesday. He is then expected to attend a dinner with other NATO leaders. On Wednesday, he will attend a working session and then hold a news conference before departing Turkey.
