Did President Trump cut cost of military jets?

“I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.” President Donald Trump on Feb. 6 at MacDill Air Force Base

President Donald Trump told military commanders in Tampa that he will deliver new airplanes at a massive savings to taxpayers.

“We’re going to be loading it up with beautiful new planes and beautiful new equipment,” he said at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base Feb. 6.

Trump then gave himself credit for saving millions of tax dollars: “But we will ensure no taxpayer dollars are wasted. I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.”

The savings with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are real, but they were in the works before Trump cried foul. A Trump spokesman did not reply for this fact-check.

The Defense Department is in the middle of the largest aircraft procurement ever for different versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-35 is built by Lockheed Martin, which has a plant in Marietta that makes the plane’s top wing assembly.

Trump raised concerns about the F-35 while campaigning.

“I’m hearing that our existing planes are better,” he told radio show host Hugh Hewitt in October 2015.

He upped his criticism of the cost after he won the election. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Trump tweeted Dec. 12. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) pur-

chases after January 20th.”

A week later, the F-35 Joint Program Office released the final price for the contract, which showed the planes for the Air Force and Marine Corps reduced by $5.9 million and $2.4 million, while the Navy model saw an increase of $3.2 million.

The Washington Post calculated total savings between $549 million and $630 million for 90 planes.

During his transition into office, Trump convened top military brass, including Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, at his estate at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach on Dec. 21 to discuss how to bring costs down for the F-35.

A week before Trump’s inauguration, Hewson said her company was close to a deal to lower costs.

Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered a review of the F-35 program in late January. On Feb. 3, the Defense Department announced it had reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin for a $728 million reduction.

Lockheed Martin issued a statement praising Trump’s involvement: “President Trump’s personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price.”

That, however, is not the end of the story.

Defense and budget experts offered a big caveat to Trump’s claim: Costs had been coming down for years.

Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said that the cost reduction for the Air Force variant of the F-35 had been in the works since before Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015.

“He’s not responsible for the savings, they were already in the pipeline long before he came on the scene,” Ellis said.

Our ruling

Trump said, “I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.”

The Department of Defense announced a $728 million reduction on Feb. 3 for the aircraft. But Trump ignores that the government and Lockheed Martin were working toward reducing the costs for years. We rate this claim Mostly False.