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Pentagon officer confirms Boeing CEO listened in on call with Trump over F-35 project

February 16, 2017

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon officer in charge of the F-35 Stealth fighter jet program confirmed Thursday that the chief executive of Boeing was listening in on the line when then-President-elect Donald Trump called him in January to discuss the program's costs.

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To Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, Hewson's generous statement was a smart move.

"[Trump] has the sort of ego that needs to be fed, and I think that was probably enough to keep him satisfied for right now," Veasey said.

Veasey, who serves on the panel that probed Pentagon officials Thursday, said he believes the F-35 program "is in a really good place right now" and he posited that most members of the committee recognize the value of the stealth fighter jets, even with the cost complications.

"Of course everybody wants to help get the price down," Veasey said, but he argued a better avenue for reducing costs would be to lift the federally mandated budget caps, known as sequestration, that restrict military spending.

Beyond Veasey, the F-35 program has another prominent Fort Worth-area defender on Capitol Hill in Republican Rep. Kay Granger. Lockheed breathed a sigh of relief last month when Granger was appointed chairman of the powerful defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees the Pentagon's budget. But she has also signaled openness to Trump's desire to "watch every penny we're spending."