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Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday said it was a “big mistake” for President Trump to provide Turkey with “military gifts” as he aims to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.
Levin wrote on social platform X that it was “Christmas in Turkey.”
“We’re piling on so many generous and expensive gifts even Erdogan is surprised,” he wrote, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “Big mistake.”
In a separate social media post, Levin wrote that the American people “do not support providing these top-line military gifts to Erdogan and his regime.”
“He threatened to destroy Israel the other day, and the administration not only said nothing but went ahead with the F-35 and jet engine sales AND will lift all sanctions against Turkey, and we are doing so while lavishly praising Erdogan,” Levin said, adding that these and other issues involving Turkey “will have to be dealt with by future American administrations for decades to come.”
Trump held a bilateral meeting with Erdoğan in Ankara ahead of the highly anticipated NATO summit. The U.S. president told reporters that he had “no concerns” about whether Turkey’s S-400 missile defense system will be handed over to a third party as part of the deal involving the F-35s.
“I have no concerns about anything having to do with Turkey,” Trump said. “I would say the relationship with Turkey is better probably than it’s ever been. It was good in my first four years, but I think it’s probably better than that if that’s possible.”
He praised Erdoğan for being a leader who has made Turkey “a much better country, a much more powerful country.”
Trump is barred from selling the F-35s to Turkey because of U.S. sanctions on the country, something the president told reporters on Tuesday that he will remove. He enacted the ban on selling the jets to Turkey during his first term.
Congress also blocked the transfer of the F-35 to Turkey as long as the Turkish military does not possess a Russian defense system, a condition codified in the 2020 Defense Authorization Act.
Lawmakers in the U.S. and Israel have pushed back on the potential move.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday that delivering the jets to Turkey will “upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority, and also by, I think … America’s posture in the Middle East.”
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers wrote to Trump on July 2 that Erdoğan’s “continued aggression” toward Israel made selling the F-35s “not in the best interest of our country.”
Lockheed Martin produces the fifth-generation fighter jet, which can fly about 1,200 miles and conduct long-range strike missions, gather intelligence and lead attacks with a group of drones.
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