Trump says Turkey won't get F-35s over Russian missile system
WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump confirmed reluctantly that Turkey won't be able to buy the U.S. F-35 fighter that it helps build after the country began taking delivery this week of a Russian missile defense system.
"We are now telling Turkey that 'because you have really been forced to buy another missile system, we are not going to sell you the F-35 fighter jets,'" Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "It is a very tough situation that they are in, and it's a tough situation that we have been placed in, the United States."
It was the president's clearest statement on the issue since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government began receiving components for the Russian-made S-400 last week. The Trump administration is still weighing other penalties over the issue, including tough economic sanctions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "and the president are examining all of the options" under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told reporters Tuesday.
But suggesting there may yet be a way to avert the F-35 cutoff, Trump said, "We are working through it, we will see what happens."
_ Bloomberg News
