Trump's Big CON: 'I Reduced the Cost of the F-35 by $600 Million'

"Lockheed already had planned cost reductions. In a Dec. 19 briefing . . .  the head of the Defense Department’s F-35 Joint Program Office, Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, announced costs would come down 'significantly.' The next stage in the F-35 program’s low-rate initial production was a new batch of 90 airplanes, called Lot 10. Bogdan had estimated that Lot 10 planes would cost “somewhere on the order of 6 to 7 percent per airplane” less than Lot 9 planes.

Between 6 to 7 percent comes out to a cost reduction of between $6.1 million and $7.1 million per plane, or between $549 million and $630 million for a full lot of 90 planes, The Washington Post’s Aaron Gregg reported. This cost reduction is already reflected in the Air Force’s budget.

Aviation Week’s Lara Seligman noted that Trump overstated his role. The average unit price has been decreasing for years, and Bogdan repeatedly has announced his intention to lower the cost of the jets, Seligman wrote."

Read the Washington Post, Trump’s claim taking credit for cutting $600 million from the F-35 program.