Lockheed Martin shares fall after Trump tweets F-35 costs are 'out of control'

A Lockheed Martin building.
(Image credit: Kevin Moloney/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is too busy to hold a scheduled press conference, but was able to carve some time out Monday morning to tweet out criticism of Lockheed Martin, whose shares ended up closing down 2.5 percent.

Trump tweeted that "the F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th." He did not elaborate on how this money will be conserved. Lockheed Martin said there are three variations of the F-35 set to replace older fighter jets used by the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and the program's general manager, Jeff Babione, told reporters Monday the company "understands the importance of affordability, and that's what the F-35 has been about."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.