Donald Trump said he will remove US penalties on Turkey and may sell the country advanced fighter jets called F-35s. He made these statements while meeting with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a NATO summit in Ankara on July 7, 2026. "We're going to be taking the sanctions off," Trump told reporters. On the jets, he was less definite, saying it's "certainly something we will consider" Al Jazeera.

To understand why this matters, you need to know the backstory. In 2019, Turkey bought an air defence system from Russia called the S-400. The US was unhappy about this — it viewed the deal as a sign Turkey was too close to Russia. In response, the US punished Turkey. It kicked Turkey out of the F-35 fighter jet programme and imposed what are called CAATSA sanctions, which essentially meant US companies couldn't do certain business with Turkey's defence industry Al Jazeera.

Then in 2020, Congress added a rule: if Turkey wanted back into the F-35 programme, the US president had to officially say that Turkey no longer has or uses the Russian S-400 system. Turkey hasn't formally done that yet, which creates a legal problem for Trump's plan.

Here's the key issue: removing the penalties and selling the jets are two different legal questions. Trump said he'll definitely remove the penalties. But on the jets, he's kept his options open — he hasn't committed to anything yet.

Erdogan said he hopes the decision on the jets will be yes. He also reminded people that Turkey had already agreed to buy five of these jets before 2019 and had put down money for them Al Jazeera.

Turkey is hosting the NATO summit this year. That's significant because it shows how important Turkey is to the alliance, even though the US and Turkey have disagreed on many things over the past seven years NATO.

Not everyone is happy about this idea. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on July 6 that selling F-35s to Turkey would "upset the power balance in the Middle East." Israel has had F-35s since 2016 and sees them as crucial to keeping its military advantage over other countries in the region Al Jazeera.

In Congress, reaction was more positive. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on July 7 that he was open to the idea: "There might be some pushback in Congress, but a solution might be found" Al Jazeera. This suggests Congress won't automatically block the sale, though it will want to examine it carefully.

Trump seems to be treating these as two separate decisions rather than one package. Removing the penalties is simpler legally. Selling the jets is harder because of that 2020 rule about the Russian S-400 system. By keeping them separate, Trump can deliver the penalty removal to Erdogan immediately while taking more time to decide on the jets.

Why does this matter beyond just the two countries? Turkey has one of NATO's biggest air forces. If it gets F-35s, that changes the military picture in the region. It also raises a question the US will have to answer: can it give advanced weapons to multiple countries in the Middle East, or is Israel special? That tension will probably show up in congressional debates and talks between US and Israeli officials in the coming weeks.

No date has been set for Trump to make a final decision on either the penalties or the jets. Both would require action from the State Department and Treasury Department. Any jet sale would also need approval from Congress.