{"id":16452,"date":"2026-08-28T22:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/turkey-spends-2-4m-on-trump-allies-to-rejoin-f-35-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:49:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T19:49:31","slug":"turkey-spends-2-4m-on-trump-allies-to-rejoin-f-35-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/turkey-spends-2-4m-on-trump-allies-to-rejoin-f-35-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Spends $2.4M on Trump Allies to Rejoin F-35 Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

The one-year contract with Ballard Partners, signed on August 8 and valued at $200,000 per month, was revealed in filings submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. The deal represents Ankara’s latest effort to reverse its 2019 expulsion from the advanced fighter program.<\/p>\n

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Photo: greekcitytimes.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ballard Partners is led by Brian Ballard<\/strong>, a Florida Republican megadonor and close ally of President Donald Trump. The firm boasts significant connections to the current administration, with former White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles<\/strong> and former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/strong> both having served on its roster.<\/p>\n

Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense is named as the client in the arrangement. Washington ejected Ankara from the F-35 program six years ago after Turkey procured Russia’s S-400 air defense system, which U.S. officials deemed incompatible with the security standards of the NATO-led fighter initiative.<\/p>\n

Former Trump Official Among Lobbyists<\/h2>\n

The lobbying team assigned to Turkey’s account includes Thomas Boudreaux<\/strong>, who until April 2025 served as a special assistant to President Trump and senior director for legislative affairs at the National Security Council, as Greek City Times<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

Boudreaux departed the administration during a personnel overhaul that followed the exit of then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz<\/strong>. His removal was reportedly connected to pressure from far-right activist Laura Loomer<\/strong>, who had flagged concerns to Trump about officials she viewed as insufficiently loyal.<\/p>\n

Also working on the Turkish contract is former Democratic Florida Congressman Robert Wexler<\/strong>, a long-standing advocate for strengthened U.S.-Turkey relations. Wexler helped found the Congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkey Relations in 2001 and now leads the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington.<\/p>\n

Second Contract With Same Firm<\/h2>\n

This is not Turkey’s first engagement with Ballard Partners. During President Trump’s first term in 2017, Ankara reportedly retained the firm under a $1.5 million contract. That earlier lobbying effort was tied to efforts surrounding federal charges against Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration’s Justice Department dismissed the Halkbank charges earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The new lobbying contract underscores Ankara’s determination to resolve the F-35 standoff and restore its defense ties with Washington, despite the ongoing controversy over its purchase of Russian military hardware.<\/p>\n

With information from Greek City Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turkey has hired Republican lobbying firm Ballard Partners for $2.4 million to help rejoin the F-35 program after its 2019 expulsion over purchasing Russia’s S-400 missile system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[12514,821,12515,9875,1326,95,209],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-16452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ballard-partners","tag-f-35-program","tag-lobbying","tag-s-400","tag-trump-administration","tag-turkey","tag-united-states","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16452"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=16452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}