{"id":1027,"date":"2026-07-07T20:42:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2026-07-07T20:42:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:42:49","slug":"trump-considers-reversing-one-of-his-own-first-term-foreign-policy-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027","title":{"rendered":"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he is considering allowing Turkey to purchase American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban imposed during his first administration after Ankara acquired a Russian missile defense system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Graham Platner Has A Price For Dropping Out: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey\u2019s been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,\u201d Trump said of the NATO ally. \u201cSo, it\u2019s something, certainly, we would consider. It\u2019s a great plane, it\u2019s the best, currently the best plane by far, and it\u2019s certainly something we will consider.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The comments mark a dramatic shift after Trump\u2019s own first administration removed Turkey from the multinational F-35 program in 2019 over Ankara\u2019s purchase of Russia\u2019s S-400 missile defense system. U.S. officials warned at the time that operating the Russian system alongside the stealth fighter could expose sensitive information about the aircraft\u2019s capabilities to Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also said his administration is working to lift sanctions imposed during his first term over Turkey\u2019s acquisition of the S-400 system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you we\u2019re going to take the sanctions off,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, Congress passed a law prohibiting the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey unless the administration certifies that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 system. <\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Turkey\u2019s Presidency of Defense Industries and several senior officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then-Secretary of State <\/span>Mike Pompeo said<\/span> Turkey\u2019s decision endangered U.S. military technology, provided substantial funds to Russia\u2019s defense sector, and ultimately led to Turkey\u2019s removal from the F-35 partnership. The White House similarly argued in a July 2019 <\/span>statement<\/span> that the F-35 \u201ccannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the second Trump administration, U.S. and Turkish officials have spent months exploring ways to satisfy legal requirements while allowing Ankara to return to the program.<\/span> According to reports, one proposal would involve transferring the S-400 systems to a third party, while other options include partially dismantling the system or relocating it to a U.S.-controlled facility in Turkey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although some of the missile systems reportedly remain in their original shipping containers, no final agreement has been reached, according to <\/span>The New York Times.<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue has been under active review inside the Trump administration. During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month, Trump suggested he hoped to deliver Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a \u201cgift\u201d that would make him \u201cvery happy.\u201d Vice President JD Vance later said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reviewing whether legal conditions required under U.S. law could be met before any sale proceeds. Trump added, \u201cWe will work it out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Congressional restrictions remain in place. Under the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Department is prohibited from transferring F-35s to Turkey while the country possesses the S-400 system. Six Turkish-owned F-35 aircraft remain in storage in the United States, while approximately $1.7 billion that Turkey had previously paid for the program has not been returned, according to a Congressional Research Service <\/span>report.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Who Tyler Robinson Interacted With Hours Before Charlie Kirk Assassination<\/a><\/p>\n

During Erdogan\u2019s White House visit last year \u2014 his first in roughly six years \u2014 Trump <\/span>suggested<\/span> he would consider lifting sanctions and allowing Turkey to reenter the F-35 program if Ankara stopped purchasing Russian oil.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,\u201d Trump said.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Reuters<\/span>, Turkey later sought to reduce its reliance on Russian energy by pursuing additional oil imports from Iraq, Kazakhstan, and other suppliers in late 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments came during his visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, which he said he nearly skipped because of his frustrations with the alliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was very disappointed with NATO,\u201d Trump said. \u201cFrankly, if it weren\u2019t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it\u2019s possible that I wouldn\u2019t have attended.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump again criticized European allies for what he said was an unequal burden-sharing arrangement, arguing the United States has spent \u201chundreds of billions of dollars\u201d defending allies that have not reciprocated U.S. support \u2014 especially during the recent conflict with Iran.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s NATO summit in The Hague, most alliance members <\/span>agreed<\/span> to a new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related needs by 2035. Under the plan, at least 3.5% would go toward core military capabilities, while up to 1.5% could be spent on defense-related infrastructure, cybersecurity, resilience, and industrial capacity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The prospect of restoring Turkey\u2019s access to Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35 has also alarmed Israel. In addition to Ankara\u2019s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Erdogan has long backed the Muslim Brotherhood and provided refuge to many of its leaders after the group was ousted from power in Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he has repeatedly urged Trump not to move forward with the sale, warned that Erdogan \u201cis not exactly a model ally of the United States\u201d and argued the aircraft would upset the regional military balance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a force for peace and stability,\u201d Netanyahu said in an interview <\/span>with CNN<\/span> on Tuesday. \u201cWhen you give them that power, you\u2019re going to see aggression in its wake.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Rumors Swirl As Mitch McConnell Hospitalization Enters Fourth Week<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he is considering allowing Turkey to purchase American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban imposed during his first administration after Ankara acquired a Russian missile defense system.\u201cWe have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey\u2019s been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,\u201d Trump said of the NATO ally. \u201cSo, it\u2019s something, certainly, we would consider. It\u2019s a great plane, it\u2019s the best, currently the best plane by far, and it\u2019s certainly something we will consider.\u201dThe comments mark a dramatic shift after Trump\u2019s own first administration removed Turkey from the multinational F-35 program in 2019 over Ankara\u2019s purchase of Russia\u2019s S-400 missile defense system. U.S. officials warned at the time that operating the Russian system alongside the stealth fighter could expose sensitive information about the aircraft\u2019s capabilities to Moscow.Trump also said his administration is working to lift sanctions imposed during his first term over Turkey\u2019s acquisition of the S-400 system.\u201cI can tell you we\u2019re going to take the sanctions off,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201dIn 2020, Congress passed a law prohibiting the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey unless the administration certifies that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 system. That same year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Turkey\u2019s Presidency of Defense Industries and several senior officials.Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Turkey\u2019s decision endangered U.S. military technology, provided substantial funds to Russia\u2019s defense sector, and ultimately led to Turkey\u2019s removal from the F-35 partnership. The White House similarly argued in a July 2019 statement that the F-35 \u201ccannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.\u201dUnder the second Trump administration, U.S. and Turkish officials have spent months exploring ways to satisfy legal requirements while allowing Ankara to return to the program. According to reports, one proposal would involve transferring the S-400 systems to a third party, while other options include partially dismantling the system or relocating it to a U.S.-controlled facility in Turkey.\u00a0Although some of the missile systems reportedly remain in their original shipping containers, no final agreement has been reached, according to The New York Times.The issue has been under active review inside the Trump administration. During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month, Trump suggested he hoped to deliver Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a \u201cgift\u201d that would make him \u201cvery happy.\u201d Vice President JD Vance later said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reviewing whether legal conditions required under U.S. law could be met before any sale proceeds. Trump added, \u201cWe will work it out.\u201dCongressional restrictions remain in place. Under the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Department is prohibited from transferring F-35s to Turkey while the country possesses the S-400 system. Six Turkish-owned F-35 aircraft remain in storage in the United States, while approximately $1.7 billion that Turkey had previously paid for the program has not been returned, according to a Congressional Research Service report.During Erdogan\u2019s White House visit last year \u2014 his first in roughly six years \u2014 Trump suggested he would consider lifting sanctions and allowing Turkey to reenter the F-35 program if Ankara stopped purchasing Russian oil.\u201cI\u2019d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,\u201d Trump said.According to Reuters, Turkey later sought to reduce its reliance on Russian energy by pursuing additional oil imports from Iraq, Kazakhstan, and other suppliers in late 2025.Trump\u2019s comments came during his visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, which he said he nearly skipped because of his frustrations with the alliance.\u201cI was very disappointed with NATO,\u201d Trump said. \u201cFrankly, if it weren\u2019t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it\u2019s possible that I wouldn\u2019t have attended.\u201dTrump again criticized European allies for what he said was an unequal burden-sharing arrangement, arguing the United States has spent \u201chundreds of billions of dollars\u201d defending allies that have not reciprocated U.S. support \u2014 especially during the recent conflict with Iran.\u00a0At last year\u2019s NATO summit in The Hague, most alliance members agreed to a new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related needs by 2035. Under the plan, at least 3.5% would go toward core military capabilities, while up to 1.5% could be spent on defense-related infrastructure, cybersecurity, resilience, and industrial capacity.\u00a0The prospect of restoring Turkey\u2019s access to Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35 has also alarmed Israel. In addition to Ankara\u2019s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Erdogan has long backed the Muslim Brotherhood and provided refuge to many of its leaders after the group was ousted from power in Egypt.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he has repeatedly urged Trump not to move forward with the sale, warned that Erdogan \u201cis not exactly a model ally of the United States\u201d and argued the aircraft would upset the regional military balance.\u201cThis is not a force for peace and stability,\u201d Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. \u201cWhen you give them that power, you\u2019re going to see aggression in its wake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions - Blue Route Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions - Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he is considering allowing Turkey to purchase American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban imposed during his first administration after Ankara acquired a Russian missile defense system.\u201cWe have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey\u2019s been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,\u201d Trump said of the NATO ally. \u201cSo, it\u2019s something, certainly, we would consider. It\u2019s a great plane, it\u2019s the best, currently the best plane by far, and it\u2019s certainly something we will consider.\u201dThe comments mark a dramatic shift after Trump\u2019s own first administration removed Turkey from the multinational F-35 program in 2019 over Ankara\u2019s purchase of Russia\u2019s S-400 missile defense system. U.S. officials warned at the time that operating the Russian system alongside the stealth fighter could expose sensitive information about the aircraft\u2019s capabilities to Moscow.Trump also said his administration is working to lift sanctions imposed during his first term over Turkey\u2019s acquisition of the S-400 system.\u201cI can tell you we\u2019re going to take the sanctions off,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201dIn 2020, Congress passed a law prohibiting the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey unless the administration certifies that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 system. That same year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Turkey\u2019s Presidency of Defense Industries and several senior officials.Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Turkey\u2019s decision endangered U.S. military technology, provided substantial funds to Russia\u2019s defense sector, and ultimately led to Turkey\u2019s removal from the F-35 partnership. The White House similarly argued in a July 2019 statement that the F-35 \u201ccannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.\u201dUnder the second Trump administration, U.S. and Turkish officials have spent months exploring ways to satisfy legal requirements while allowing Ankara to return to the program. According to reports, one proposal would involve transferring the S-400 systems to a third party, while other options include partially dismantling the system or relocating it to a U.S.-controlled facility in Turkey.\u00a0Although some of the missile systems reportedly remain in their original shipping containers, no final agreement has been reached, according to The New York Times.The issue has been under active review inside the Trump administration. During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month, Trump suggested he hoped to deliver Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a \u201cgift\u201d that would make him \u201cvery happy.\u201d Vice President JD Vance later said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reviewing whether legal conditions required under U.S. law could be met before any sale proceeds. Trump added, \u201cWe will work it out.\u201dCongressional restrictions remain in place. Under the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Department is prohibited from transferring F-35s to Turkey while the country possesses the S-400 system. Six Turkish-owned F-35 aircraft remain in storage in the United States, while approximately $1.7 billion that Turkey had previously paid for the program has not been returned, according to a Congressional Research Service report.During Erdogan\u2019s White House visit last year \u2014 his first in roughly six years \u2014 Trump suggested he would consider lifting sanctions and allowing Turkey to reenter the F-35 program if Ankara stopped purchasing Russian oil.\u201cI\u2019d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,\u201d Trump said.According to Reuters, Turkey later sought to reduce its reliance on Russian energy by pursuing additional oil imports from Iraq, Kazakhstan, and other suppliers in late 2025.Trump\u2019s comments came during his visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, which he said he nearly skipped because of his frustrations with the alliance.\u201cI was very disappointed with NATO,\u201d Trump said. \u201cFrankly, if it weren\u2019t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it\u2019s possible that I wouldn\u2019t have attended.\u201dTrump again criticized European allies for what he said was an unequal burden-sharing arrangement, arguing the United States has spent \u201chundreds of billions of dollars\u201d defending allies that have not reciprocated U.S. support \u2014 especially during the recent conflict with Iran.\u00a0At last year\u2019s NATO summit in The Hague, most alliance members agreed to a new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related needs by 2035. Under the plan, at least 3.5% would go toward core military capabilities, while up to 1.5% could be spent on defense-related infrastructure, cybersecurity, resilience, and industrial capacity.\u00a0The prospect of restoring Turkey\u2019s access to Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35 has also alarmed Israel. In addition to Ankara\u2019s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Erdogan has long backed the Muslim Brotherhood and provided refuge to many of its leaders after the group was ousted from power in Egypt.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he has repeatedly urged Trump not to move forward with the sale, warned that Erdogan \u201cis not exactly a model ally of the United States\u201d and argued the aircraft would upset the regional military balance.\u201cThis is not a force for peace and stability,\u201d Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. \u201cWhen you give them that power, you\u2019re going to see aggression in its wake.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blue Route Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-07T20:42:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c\"},\"headline\":\"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-07T20:42:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027\"},\"wordCount\":961,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/4c5bcec3ed4670625dd4b0b94a5369e0.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blueroutejournal.com\\\/?p=1027\",\"name\":\"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions - 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Blue Route Journal","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions - Blue Route Journal","og_description":"President Donald Trump said Tuesday at the NATO summit in Ankara that he is considering allowing Turkey to purchase American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets, a move that would reverse a ban imposed during his first administration after Ankara acquired a Russian missile defense system.\u201cWe have a better relationship with Turkey, and Turkey\u2019s been, in many ways, much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,\u201d Trump said of the NATO ally. \u201cSo, it\u2019s something, certainly, we would consider. It\u2019s a great plane, it\u2019s the best, currently the best plane by far, and it\u2019s certainly something we will consider.\u201dThe comments mark a dramatic shift after Trump\u2019s own first administration removed Turkey from the multinational F-35 program in 2019 over Ankara\u2019s purchase of Russia\u2019s S-400 missile defense system. U.S. officials warned at the time that operating the Russian system alongside the stealth fighter could expose sensitive information about the aircraft\u2019s capabilities to Moscow.Trump also said his administration is working to lift sanctions imposed during his first term over Turkey\u2019s acquisition of the S-400 system.\u201cI can tell you we\u2019re going to take the sanctions off,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201dIn 2020, Congress passed a law prohibiting the transfer of F-35 aircraft to Turkey unless the administration certifies that Turkey no longer possesses the S-400 system. That same year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions under the Countering America\u2019s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Turkey\u2019s Presidency of Defense Industries and several senior officials.Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Turkey\u2019s decision endangered U.S. military technology, provided substantial funds to Russia\u2019s defense sector, and ultimately led to Turkey\u2019s removal from the F-35 partnership. The White House similarly argued in a July 2019 statement that the F-35 \u201ccannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities.\u201dUnder the second Trump administration, U.S. and Turkish officials have spent months exploring ways to satisfy legal requirements while allowing Ankara to return to the program. According to reports, one proposal would involve transferring the S-400 systems to a third party, while other options include partially dismantling the system or relocating it to a U.S.-controlled facility in Turkey.\u00a0Although some of the missile systems reportedly remain in their original shipping containers, no final agreement has been reached, according to The New York Times.The issue has been under active review inside the Trump administration. During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte last month, Trump suggested he hoped to deliver Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a \u201cgift\u201d that would make him \u201cvery happy.\u201d Vice President JD Vance later said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reviewing whether legal conditions required under U.S. law could be met before any sale proceeds. Trump added, \u201cWe will work it out.\u201dCongressional restrictions remain in place. Under the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Department is prohibited from transferring F-35s to Turkey while the country possesses the S-400 system. Six Turkish-owned F-35 aircraft remain in storage in the United States, while approximately $1.7 billion that Turkey had previously paid for the program has not been returned, according to a Congressional Research Service report.During Erdogan\u2019s White House visit last year \u2014 his first in roughly six years \u2014 Trump suggested he would consider lifting sanctions and allowing Turkey to reenter the F-35 program if Ankara stopped purchasing Russian oil.\u201cI\u2019d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,\u201d Trump said.According to Reuters, Turkey later sought to reduce its reliance on Russian energy by pursuing additional oil imports from Iraq, Kazakhstan, and other suppliers in late 2025.Trump\u2019s comments came during his visit to Ankara for the NATO summit, which he said he nearly skipped because of his frustrations with the alliance.\u201cI was very disappointed with NATO,\u201d Trump said. \u201cFrankly, if it weren\u2019t held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it\u2019s possible that I wouldn\u2019t have attended.\u201dTrump again criticized European allies for what he said was an unequal burden-sharing arrangement, arguing the United States has spent \u201chundreds of billions of dollars\u201d defending allies that have not reciprocated U.S. support \u2014 especially during the recent conflict with Iran.\u00a0At last year\u2019s NATO summit in The Hague, most alliance members agreed to a new goal of spending 5% of GDP on defense and defense-related needs by 2035. Under the plan, at least 3.5% would go toward core military capabilities, while up to 1.5% could be spent on defense-related infrastructure, cybersecurity, resilience, and industrial capacity.\u00a0The prospect of restoring Turkey\u2019s access to Lockheed Martin\u2019s F-35 has also alarmed Israel. In addition to Ankara\u2019s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Erdogan has long backed the Muslim Brotherhood and provided refuge to many of its leaders after the group was ousted from power in Egypt.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he has repeatedly urged Trump not to move forward with the sale, warned that Erdogan \u201cis not exactly a model ally of the United States\u201d and argued the aircraft would upset the regional military balance.\u201cThis is not a force for peace and stability,\u201d Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday. \u201cWhen you give them that power, you\u2019re going to see aggression in its wake.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027","og_site_name":"Blue Route Journal","article_published_time":"2026-07-07T20:42:49+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/#\/schema\/person\/19da116f8d79cf8987781569801c6b7c"},"headline":"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions","datePublished":"2026-07-07T20:42:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027"},"wordCount":961,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4c5bcec3ed4670625dd4b0b94a5369e0.avif","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027","url":"https:\/\/blueroutejournal.com\/?p=1027","name":"Trump Considers Reversing One Of His Own First-Term Foreign Policy Decisions - 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