--- title: Donald Trump Meets With Boeing and Lockheed Martin CEOs description: Donald Trump held meetings with the CEOs of Boeing and Lockheed Martin in an effort to control costs in the massive Pentagon budget canonical: https://time.com/4614358/donald-trump-boeing-lockheed/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-22T00:12:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:20.467Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Meets Boeing and Lockheed Martin CEOs to Negotiate Defense-Spending Costs og:description: The meeting was an effort to control costs in the massive Pentagon budget og:url: https://time.com/4614358/donald-trump-boeing-lockheed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29310842b982461f/6988b3c7bc6cfce0343dfa3d/trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Meets Boeing and Lockheed Martin CEOs to Negotiate Defense-Spending Costs twitter:description: The meeting was an effort to control costs in the massive Pentagon budget twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29310842b982461f/6988b3c7bc6cfce0343dfa3d/trump-meeting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Meets Boeing and Lockheed Martin CEOs to Negotiate Defense Spending Costs > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8b61a0ed-1a05-4eca-9c7f-e794331d8e34&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._ by [Zeke J Miller / Palm Beach, Fla.](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Palm Beach, Fla. Dec 22, 2016 12:12 AM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with military leadership following meetings at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 21, 2016. President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with military leadership following meetings at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 21, 2016. Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images by [Zeke J Miller / Palm Beach, Fla.](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Palm Beach, Fla. Dec 22, 2016 12:12 AM UTC President-elect [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4612968/donald-trump-inauguration-donors-sons-nonprofit/) is becoming the negotiator in chief. The celerity businessman turned politician held meetings Wednesday with generals, military procurers and two of the largest defense contractors in an effort to control costs in the massive Pentagon budget, Trump said Wednesday. The conversations followed tweets from the President-elect objecting to the [price of a new Air Force One](http://time.com/money/4596701/cost-air-force-one-trump-tweet/) replacement and the estimated [$1.5 trillion F-35 Joint Strike](http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/4291/could-the-f-35-become-the-biggest-electronic-intelligence-collection-system-ever-devised) Fighter program. It’s unusual for a President, let alone one who has yet to take office, to become personally involved in defense-procurement negotiations. But it follows a pattern for Trump, who told TIME last month he intends to negotiate directly with companies in an effort to control costs and boost American manufacturing. Eight generals and admirals, and the Pentagon’s top civilian procurer met with Trump for more than two hours Wednesday to discuss ongoing and future defense contracts. Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg also met with Trump. “Trying to bring costs down — costs,” Trump told reporters after the meetings. “Primarily the F-35, trying to get the costs down. A program that is very, very expensive.” The meetings at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., were not advised in advance by Trump’s team, which said he was only involved to be in “internal staff meetings” Wednesday. Trump indicated that he has not yet secured cost concessions from Hewson. “We’re just beginning, it’s a dance,” Trump said. “It’s a little bit of a dance. But we’re going to get the costs down and we’re going to get it done beautifully.” Hewson, who declined to speak with reporters after the meeting, said in a statement that she had a “productive” meeting with Trump. “I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the F-35 program and the progress we’ve made in bringing the costs down,” she said. The F-35 is a critical program to our national security and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies.” Trump has been critical of the Lockheed Martin program on Twitter, with his comments sending shares of the company temporarily down. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/808301935728230404) It followed a tweet days earlier by the President-elect claiming that the presidential-aircraft replacement would cost $4 billion and called for its cancellation. Trump’s meeting with Boeing CEO Muilenburg appeared to be more productive, as the airplane manufacturer guaranteed Trump that the project to replace the aging, heavily modified Boeing 747-200s that serve as Air Force One with more modern 747-800s would cost less than $4 billion. “We’re going to get it done for less than that, and we’re committed to working together to make sure that happens,” Muilenburg told reporters. The new plane will almost certainly not be ready for Trump to fly unless he wins a second term. “We haven’t actually started the build of the airplane yet, but once we finalize the requirements and make sure that it’s affordable we’ll launch on building the aircraft,” Muilenburg said. “We’ve got a hot production line and we’re ready to go.” Trump added later, “I think we’re looking to cut a tremendous amount of money off the program.” Military officials brought scale models of the three F-35 variants as part of their presentation. General Carlton Everhart was holding a binder with a photo of Air Force One on the cover as he walked into the club. ## Transcript [00:04] MUSIC ] Every [00:10] year we choose the Person of the Year who is the [00:12] individual who has had the most influence on events [00:16] for better or worse. The Tod argue that [00:21] anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the [00:24] events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I [00:28] didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to [00:32] get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people [00:36] wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument [00:40] about whether his influence was for the better or for [00:43] the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces [00:47] the country came through this election season more [00:51] divided conspicuously publicly than at [00:56] any time through any election cycle that most of us Can [00:59] remember. [ MUSIC ] We're [01:04] gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna [01:07] have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I [01:10] believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS [01:14] or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the [01:17] same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the [01:19] election as opposed to from January 20th because the [01:23] stock market has had a tremendous bounce and [01:26] people are seeing very good things for business in this [01:28] country. [ MUSIC ] [01:32] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see [01:34] him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which [01:38] is the most austiontacious, imaginable [01:42] marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in [01:46] the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of [01:49] distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the [01:53] billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, [01:56] he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a [01:59] phony, that there have certainly been wealthy [02:01] politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over [02:04] backwards to make themselves appear like the [02:07] common man, or do anything that they could, eating [02:09] the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel [02:11] shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong [02:14] instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of [02:19] his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an [02:23] asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable [02:27] sitting down and answering questions, although he very [02:29] frequently does not remotely answer the question that [02:32] you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and [02:35] in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He [02:38] knows what he will and will not talk about and is [02:41] unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you [02:45] feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if [02:49] I play this tape back in four or eight years, the [02:53] office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very [02:58] humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that [03:01] loves this country, it's a very large [03:05] country, but it's also an even more powerful country [03:09] than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and [03:12] India, and you have others with more people, but, [03:15] when you look at what we do in this country, it's The [03:18] most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of [03:22] people think that Person of the Year just because the [03:24] nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there [03:27] have been years where we have recognized people's [03:31] whose influence has been altogether, unassailably [03:34] worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there [03:39] are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what [03:42] Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about [03:46] what his presidency means for them and for the [03:48] country. I think I would challenge them to suggest [03:52] that someone else this year had more influence than a [03:55] way greater Surprise than what he [04:00] did in 2016. 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