Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:40 pm
Donald Trump is back at it. Having attacked Boeing via Twitter, and doing real harm to the company, he has now launched an attack on Lockheed:
The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
As as been noted, this has real consequences, with Lockheed Martin Corp. shares falling 2.5 percent to $253 before the stock market opened Monday and falling quickly 3 percent.
CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla noted,
And like that, Lockheed shares down 3%.$LMT pic.twitter.com/brr0oRQ510
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) December 12, 2016
Kurt Eichenwald called out Trump’s Boeing attacks for his lies, abuse of power and stock manipulation and this represents more of the same.
Trump has said he will work to control costs of military contracts, and it is true that costs for the F-35 have doubled, but apparently his way of doing this is to pre-emptively offending corporations by destroying their stock value. There is plenty wrong with this strategy, and yet another reason Trump is an unsuitable choice as president.
As CNBC reports, “The F-35 program made up 20 percent of Lockheed’s total revenue last year.” This is a man who opens his mouth without any concern for what will happen as a result, and who is about to occupy the most powerful position on the globe. That ought to be terrifying to everyone.
Photo: Twitter/CNBC
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.