Sky News interrupted for breaking news as Donald Trump issues furious demand

Sky News’ regular programming was halted and went live to the White House as President Donald Trump greeted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The US leader was at the door when the car adorned with Turkish flags arrived. In the live broadcast, the two Presidents shook hands and shared a few words before posing for photos. This meeting comes as the Republican leader seeks to agree on arms and trade deals that could help ease a series of diplomatic disputes that have dogged U.S.-Turkish ties for years.

However, things took an unexpected turn in the Oval Office when Trump issued a stern plea about Turkey’s allegiance with Russia. Speaking of Erdogan, he told the press: “This is a tough man, this is a guy who's highly opinionated. Usually, I don’t like opinionated people, but I always liked this one,” to which Trump admitted: “But he’s a tough one.” The President went on: “He does an amazing job in his country and we’ve had tremendous relationships, both having to do with war and having to do with trade, I guess today we’re talking about both.”

Trump declared: “I’d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia, while Russia continues its rampage against Ukraine.

“They’ve been fighting, they’ve lost millions of lives already and for what?" Trump said before labelling the current conflict, which started in February 2022, as "disgraceful".

“I said yesterday, let it keep going because there economy is absolutely terrible right now and I think it’s a shame that they’re doing that, they’re killing a lot of people unnecessarily," he continued. “7818 people were killed last week, mostly military people; their people and Ukrainians. More Russians actually, than Ukrainians.”

The US leader went on: “It’s such a waste of human life and so [Vladimir] Putin ought to stop and with that we’ll get to a little bit of a discussion, we’ll make some great trade deals for both countries.”

Trump added: “We do a lot of great business with Turkey, they build great products, really fantastic manufacturers, and we buy a lot from them and they buy a lot from us.”

Erdogan said he was “very pleased” to be returning to the White House and hoped to elevate Turkiye-US relations to “a much different level” during Trump’s second term as president.

Their trade talks come after Trump removed Turkey from a programme that saw Washington sell sophisticated F-35 fighter jets to allies during his first Presidential term in 2019.

However, this trading of military aircraft could resume as Trump hinted on Thursday (September 25), that he may lift sanctions against the sale of such aircraft to Turkiye if his meeting with Erdogan went well.

“I know he wants the F-35, and he’s wanted that,” Trump said of Erdogan. “And we’re talking about that very seriously.”