Trump's Troubling New Friendship With Turkey's Strongman
Trump Lifts Sanctions Benefiting the Anti-Israel Muslim Leader
On Tuesday, while sitting next to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Trump dramatically announced he is unilaterally lifting sanctions on the Muslim country and told reporters he was considering moving forward on the sale of up to 100 F-35 Lightening II stealth fighter jets to Ankara.
President Trump’s decision was overshadowed by U.S. strikes against southern Iran after the Islamic regime hit three unarmed container ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
The President ordered strikes against Iranian air defense systems, coastal surveillance, surface-to-air missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles and drone launch sites, according to the Pentagon.
Because of the Iranian attacks, Treasury Department officials added that they are clawing back some previous oil waivers that were enacted after a 14-point “Memorandum of Understanding” (MoU) which was signed by the United States and Iran. However, the temporary ceasefire appears to be fraying after less than a month since the 60-day MoU was activated.
Israel Live News cited American analysts speculating that Iran may have believed it would not be attacked while Trump was in Turkey as part of the NATO Summit which is from July 7 to 8.
The attacks on the ship occurred while Iranian officials were choreographing a week of funeral processions throughout the country for the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khomeni. He was killed on February 28 when the United States launched Operation Epic Fury along with Israeli forces.
In a press conference earlier in the day with Erdogan, Trump was asked by reporters whether he should sell the advanced stealth fighter to the openly anti-Israel country, Trump replied, “Many people including the people sitting right here think why wouldn’t we do that?”
He added, “Turkey has been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal.”
When Trump took off from Andrews Air Force Base to go to Turkey, the State Department also quietly admitted that late last month his administration had notified Congress it was approving more than $700 million for the sale of fighter jet engines for the KAAN fighter jet, Turkey’s first indigenous combat jet.
By the way, NATO’s embrace of the KAAN jet is yet another example of Europe’s totally misguided politics. The KAAN aircraft was launched in 2016 as part of NATO’s efforts to be “more self-sufficient” in its defense. But the KAAN aircraft program has languished as Turkey’s inefficient construction work ground the project to a halt.
Vice President J.D. Vance reportedly favors the sale of the F-35s to Turkey. He’s working with Pentagon brass on how they may administratively bypass Congress to get the stealth fighter jets to the Muslim country.
For those who are not familiar with the F-35’s, the IMB Aviation Channel describes the aircraft as “one of the most advanced stealth fighter jets ever built, designed to dominate the battlespace with unmatched technology.”
The aviation channel adds, “With incredible maneuverability, precision weapons, and cutting-edge avionics, the F-35 doesn’t just fly missions, it rewrites how air combat is fought in the 21st century.”
During his first term as President, in 2019 Trump and Congress barred Turkey from obtaining advanced American military hardware because Ankara decided to buy the sophisticated Russian built S-400 defense system.
Military experts explain that if Turkish officials understand the F-35’s highly classified stealth and sensor technologies, they could share it with Russian intelligence to enable Moscow to gather data on the fighter jet and adjust its S-400 system to improve their missile reliability.
Yet today, in answering reporters who repeatedly asked about the problems of the presence of Russian missiles inside Turkey the President was dismissive, replying, “I have no concerns about anything.”
Also problematic is that while the President is trying to forge a new relationship with Erdogan, the Turkish President openly talks about leading a militant Sunni alliance to destroy Israel.
Erdogan is also trying to be President-for-Life by altering his own country’s constitution to extend his 23-year rule beyond his current term which ends in 2028. If successful, he would abolish the legislature and court system and create authoritarian, one-man rule.
Meanwhile, it’s interesting that inside Israel, former bitter political enemies are uniting to oppose Turkey, whom they describe as “the new Iran” which also seeks the destruction of the Jewish state.
Writing in the Israel media outlet Ynet, Michael Milshtein, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center, writes that “there is no question Erdogan publicly seeks to destroy Israel. In a recent speech he said that, “the genocidal, occupying, expansionist ideology called Zionism threatens not only me, not only our party, not only our alliance; it threatens everyone.... When we struggle against Zionism, we are not waging this struggle for ourselves or for personal reasons. We are doing it for our own survival and for the survival of our nation.”
Milshtein accurately says Erdogan, “is forming a Sunni regional axis to rival the Shiite one, with the shared goal of surrounding Israel with a ring of fire.”
The British Telegraph columnist Jake Wallis Simons additionally warns of the enormity of Trump’s blunder in awarding advance weaponry to a state committed to the destruction of Israel.
He wrote a few days ago, “In its Islamist incarnation, Turkey has evolved to become a cuckoo in the NATO’s nest. Last week, just days before a Nato summit in Ankara, Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, delivered an Israelophobic rant on CNN Türk that officials in
Simons added that Fidan sounded “like a character from the Third Reich.” The Turkish Foreign Minister said this about the Jews living in Israel: “These people have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear. The human conscience cannot bear it.”
To carry out his vision, the Turkish leader is aggressively seeking the creation of a new Sunni Muslim alliance, called the “Strategic Triad” to rival Iran’s Shiite political and military “Axis of Resistance.”
Throughout the Sunni Middle East, there is widespread, even excited, talk of the new “Strategic Triad.”
Erdogan co-anchored his country as one leg of the triad. The other two legs are joined by Qatar and Pakistan. Erdogan hopes to entice Saudi Arabia and Egypt to join the new alliance.
Trump clearly has bought into this alliance.
The basic and powerful idea behind the three-way alliance is that Qatar will offer vast financial depth, Turkey will deliver a powerful conventional military power, and Pakistan is a powerful nuclear power.
So, Trump now is rewarding Erdogan, a man who not only openly seeks to establish a new messianic Sunni Caliphate throughout the Middle East, but who also by the way, openly pledges to destroy the state of Israel.
Meanwhile, the President may have a congressional fight on his hands from his own Republicans about the sanctions relief and the sale of advanced weaponry to Turkey.
In a July 2 letter to the President, a very bipartisan group of House Members – it had more Republicans than Democrats -- steadfastly opposed to the F-35 sale, flatly stated, “it is not in the best interest of our country to sell them F-35s.”
A group of Democrats and Republicans, led by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Brad Sherman (D-CA), wrote, “While Turkey has been a NATO ally since 1952, they have hardly been a reliable partner in the present day.”
The sale needs congressional support. It’s likely that both the Senate and House will vote to try to block it. But a Trump veto could nullify the congressional vote.
Turkey also is no stranger to Hamas. While the terrorist group is beaten down in Gaza, Erdogan has allowed Hamas to openly operate an active office in Istanbul. This office and other Hamas facilities in Turkey play direct operational roles for the terrorist group. From Turkey, Hamas plans and directs attacks on Israel as well as raise and move funds on behalf of the terrorist group.
Turkey also has a plan to massively expand its presence in neighboring Syria. In an agreement signed on August 13, 2025, Ankara agreed to train a new Syrian army and security forces. The goal is to build an army of 200,000 soldiers over the next five years.
Turkey’s influence in the Trump administration is reportedly led by Tom Barrak, the Special Envoy and US Ambassador to Turkey. His positions often echo those of Ankara.
Strategically, not all is lost. Israel itself has 75 F-35s. The Israeli technicians have significantly altered the aircraft by installing proprietary software and other alterations that reportedly make the stealth fighter even more lethal.
Facing rising international criticism, Israeli leaders also are promising more domestic production for its own military hardware and software, eschewing any kind of dependence on other countries, including the U.S.
But since audaciously launching Operation Epic Fury last February, Trump has dramatically retreated from the use of military force against Iran and its proxies. So, what is behind Trump’s retreat?
Was this because he believes there are limitations of sole use of aerial military strikes against Iran and he’s dead set against sending in ground troops?
Or was he simply motivated to reduce the price of gasoline and strengthen the Republicans’ chances to hold on to the House and Senate during the mid-terms?
Most worrisome in Jerusalem is whether Trump’s action is a strategic move against Israel and toward a new alliance with the Muslim world?
We may soon learn where Trump is heading both by his actions at the NATO Summit as well as his forthcoming face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu claims he and Trump are on the same page. But will that be true after their next meeting?
In the end, will we receive good news? Or will Donald Trump’s actions in Ankara hurt his reputation as well as America’s standing in the world?
Perhaps the President will follow in the footsteps on France and Britain. Those colonial powers in the Middle East decided their fate was far better in a post-war alliance with Muslim monarchies and strongmen rather than with a small Democratic Jewish state.
It appears we’ll know the answers to some of these questions very soon.