Trump and Erdoğan scheduled to address NATO summit opening in Ankara as U.S. membership debate resurfaces

President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are scheduled to deliver remarks in Ankara as the NATO summit begins, according to a Tuesday video segment from The Hill. The remarks are expected to come before the broader alliance meeting, setting the tone for Trump’s high-profile return to the summit’s agenda at the start of the week’s diplomacy.

Trump’s travel to Turkey comes as The Hill reports that his administration has floated the idea of pulling the United States out of NATO. The report frames the comments and timing as part of an unfolding dispute over alliance terms rather than a final decision, noting that the prospect has triggered pushback from within Trump’s political coalition and from partners outside the United States.

The Hill also reported that Trump’s NATO pressure has drawn opposition among Republicans, and that the issue extends beyond alliance budgeting to Turkey’s defense procurement and military alignment. Specifically, The Hill said there is growing pushback from the GOP and from Israel over admitting Turkey back into the F-35 fighter jet program as long as Turkey holds Russian air defense systems.

Beyond the NATO context, The Hill said Trump is also expected to meet separately with additional leaders during his visit. The report said Trump is anticipated to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during the Turkey trip, expanding the agenda beyond NATO’s core European security framework to include U.S. engagement across multiple regional conflicts.

In the remarks ahead of the summit, Erdoğan and Trump are likely to address the U.S.-Turkey bilateral relationship alongside alliance priorities, The Hill said. NATO leaders typically use summit openings to emphasize deterrence, military readiness, and coordination among member states, while bilateral leaders use the pre-summit hours to narrow differences on tradeoffs that may arise in alliance negotiations.

The Hill did not provide a timetable or formal mechanism for any change to U.S. NATO participation, but it described the “floated” pullout idea as part of Trump’s approach to leverage at the alliance forum. As a result, the immediate practical effect of the remark schedule, as reflected in public reporting, is to put the membership question and related conditions back in front of summit participants at the start of deliberations.

The next steps for the question raised in the reporting will depend on whether the administration pursues any formal review process or a legal and policy pathway for altering U.S. commitments. While The Hill’s reporting centers on an internal debate and political pushback, any actual change in U.S. posture toward NATO would require decision-making through the executive branch and, depending on the method and scope, potential involvement of Congress or treaty-related processes under U.S. law.

The Ankara remarks and the broader summit discussions are also expected to continue to link security decisions to procurement and interoperability, given the reported disagreement around Turkey and the F-35 program. The operational consequences for NATO planning, alliance procurement coordination, and regional security cooperation would likely hinge on how member governments, especially Washington and Ankara, resolve the conditions at issue during summit negotiations.