No 'magic wand': Trump faces layers of resistance on Turkey F-35 deal Submitted by Sean Mathews on Tue, 07/07/2026 - 19:56 The US president says he is 'lifting sanctions' on Turkey, but the pathway to closer defence ties is not clear-cut Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, hosts US President Donald Trump for a state ceremony at Bestepe Presidential Compound in Ankara, on the sidelines of the Nato Summit, on 7 July 2026 (Saul Loeb/AFP) Off President Donald Trump says he will lift sanctions on Turkey and overturn a ban on selling the US ’s Nato ally F-35 warplanes, but experts say he has “no magic wand” to do so without buy-in from Congress. “We’re going to be taking the sanctions off,” Trump said on Tuesday, sitting next to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at his presidential palace in Ankara. “We don’t want to sanction friends.