The chief of US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin met on Saturday with Donald Trump, promising to create thousands of jobs and bring down costs of the stealth fighter the president-elect lambasted.
Trump last month slammed Lockheed in one of his customary Twitter attacks for the “out of control” costs of the F-35 fighter jet, sending the company’s share price plunging. Lockheed President and CEO Marillyn Hewson said on Saturday that she told Trump the company is “close to a deal that will bring the cost down significantly” for the next group of aircraft and “it’s going to bring a lot of jobs to the United States.”
“In fact we are going to increase our jobs in Fort Worth (Texas) by 1,800 jobs and when you think about the supply chain across 45 states in the US it’s going to be thousands and thousands of jobs,” Hewson told reporters at Trump Tower.
Lockheed is one of many firms that have felt the sting of Trump’s attacks by tweet, targeting especially those companies that manufacture in Mexico for export to the US.