The ponderomotive effects and magnetic field generation due to the nonlinear interaction of short‐wavelength ion turbulence with an electromagnetic wave are studied using the Dawson and Oberman model, which exactly describes the electron‐ion interaction in the limit of infinite ion‐to‐electron mass ratio. The differences from the results of the heuristic Landau model are stressed, in particular for nonthermal ion correlations and for an electromagnetic wave frequency slightly exceeding the electron plasma frequency.