Well this is interesting. Today Trump defended Erdogan’s purchase of the non-NATO Russian S-400 missile defense system, blaming Obama for puttting them in that situation:
Watch:
Trump blamed Obama for refusing to sell to Erdogan our patriot missile defense system under any circumstance, forcing Turkey to go to Russia, which he says Erdogan didn’t want to do.
And because of that, Trump suggested that it’s now unfair that the US is NOT allowed to sell F-35s to Turkey because of their purchase of the Russian system. Trump lamented the jobs that could be created at Lockheed from the selling of these fighter jets to Turkey.
In April of this year it was reported that the Trump administration had canceled the sale of the F-35s to Turkey, which was welcome news. But hearing Trump talk about it now, it sounds like this wasn’t a decision he wanted to make.
I understand what Trump is saying here, but Turkey shouldn’t even be a NATO member at this point. Erdogan is a strongman dictator who has taken over his country by persecuting journalists and seizing all major media. Not only has he rewritten their constitution to give himself all power, he’s purged all major aspects of the government including the judiciary and replaced them with his own loyal men who will do his bidding. He’s using the ruse of democracy to maintain his power, but make no mistake, Turkey is not Democratic anymore. And it’s just a matter of time before Erdogan drops the ruse of Democracy.
Trump really needs to take off the blinders when it comes to Erdogan. As much as it surprises me to admit, Trump should consider that perhaps Obama made the right decision to not sell these F-35s to Turkey in the first place. And it’s far past time to give them the boot from NATO too.