A billionaire with Texas ties and President-elect Donald Trump's ear wants to cut federal funding for Lockheed Martin's F-35, something North Texas congressional lawmakers are warning against, but eliminating the program may be easier said than done.
Tesla and Space X's Elon Musk is tasked with slashing federal spending as a co-leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency in Trump's incoming administration. He recently spoke out against the F-35, fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
In one of a series of social media posts about the jet, he advocated for stopping the F-35 program, describing it as "the worst military value for money in history." In another, he calls the F-35 a "an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none" and posts that "manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway."
Heading DOGE with fellow-billionaire and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk seeks to cut at least $2 trillion in federal spending, a sum that's leaving experts skeptical, according to The Hill. The pair wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that they intend to take aim at "$500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended."
The Star-Telegram reached out to Musk through Space X and Tesla's press contacts, but did not receive a response. His companies Tesla and X, formerly Twitter, are headquartered in Texas. Space X has facilities in Texas, and Musk has said he's moving its headquarters to the state from California.
A request for Trump's comment was also not returned.
TCU Political Science Professor Jim Riddlesperger said defense spending is particularly hard to cut because the funds are distributed across the country. Instead of an overall program cut, SMU political science professor Cal Jillson expects slowing of production as the program is assessed.
As Musk's comments raise questions about the F-35's future, Fort Worth area House representatives are defending the program.
"I think that the biggest threat we've ever had to the plant exists now, because Elon Musk has a lot of sway with this new current president and because the cost of the F-35 is such that it makes it an attractive target for people that want to do something like try to replace pilots with drones and experiment with the Pentagon in that sort of way," said Rep. Marc Veasey, a Fort Worth Democrat.
What could be the fate of the program that's been a tenant of Fort Worth since the first F-35 left the Lockheed Martin factory? That will ultimately become clear as Trump takes office, but here's what to know in the meantime.
The Scope of the F-35 Program
Beyond Fort Worth, the F-35 program has suppliers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, as well as in countries outside the U.S.
The program has an estimated annual economic impact of $72 billion and provides more than 250,000 advanced manufacturing jobs, according to Lockheed Martin. In the Fort Worth area, the program supports more than 49,000 direct and indirect jobs and $9.4 billion in annual economic impact.
Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon recently reached an initial agreement to build more F-35.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office says the F-35 "plays a crucial role" in the Department of Defense's "ability to meet current and future U.S. national security goals," but at the same time, the program has seen production problems and rising costs as the U.S. military plans to use the jet less. The program's price tag could reach $2 trillion, according to Defense News.
Asked about the F-35's role in the defense plan, the likelihood of it ending or budget cuts and Musk's comments, a Defense Department official said in a Thursday, Dec. 5 statement that, "The Department will not comment on pre-decisional matters."
The defense official did note that "the F-35 is an international program with multiple customers and partners including the United States, seven international partner nations, and 12 foreign military sales (FMS) customers." All of the funding for the U.S. F-35 customers, which includes the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, is appropriated by Congress, while international and foreign military customers contribute their own funding for the program, the official said.
When asked about Musk's comments at a Nov. 26 press briefing, Defense Department Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder noted Musk is a private citizen and told reporters he was "not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35."
Can Elon Musk Cut the F-35 Program?
Riddlesperger, the TCU political science professor, said it's one thing to say the F-35 program should be cut, but another to actually execute reductions.
"It's always very easy to do what Elon Musk is doing, which is identifying things that you think could be cut from the budget to save money," Riddlesperger said.
But ultimately the cuts must go through the budget appropriations process in Congress, and Riddlesperger doesn't expect North Texas House representatives, regardless of party, to favor ending the F-35 program.
"I think it would be a very difficult task to get Congress to agree to cut the F-35 project because members of Congress will see thundering hoof beats targeting the defense contracting programs they have in their districts as well," Riddlesperger said.
Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that they will "serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees."
"Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won't just write reports or cut ribbons," the article reads. "We'll cut costs."
They will focus on "driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws," according to the article. Musk and Ramaswamy also believe "the government procurement process is badly broken," according to the article.
"Many federal contracts have gone unexamined for years," the article reads. "Large-scale audits conducted during a temporary suspension of payments would yield significant savings. The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency's leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent."
Musk and Ramaswamy have already begun meeting with Republicans in Congress, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who met with Ramaswamy, according to Fox News.
Musk has Trump's ear, which could be a threat to the F-35 given Musk will be approaching cuts in a different way than Congress, said Jillson, the SMU political science professor.
"Musk is going to be operating from a perspective that doesn't take into account the congressional perspective of distributing budgetary largesse across the country, making sure that every congressional district is touched, and making sure that senior congressmen get their way on appropriations matters," Jillson said.
It is important that the F-35 program be looked at closely and skeptically, Jillson said.
"The F-35 has long needed a real scrubbing because the plane has issues, and has long had issues and they need to be sorted out so that we're not simply dumping billions of dollars down the drain or into a plane that has compromised capabilities," he said.
But cuts would likely not come as an announcement that the F-35 would no longer be produced, Jillson said.
"I think what you would expect to see is a slowing of production and a ramping up of a study of the weaknesses and strengths of the F-35, and what its future should be," Jillson said.
What Have Fort Worth Congressional Reps Said?
Debates over the F-35 program will also be a test of what U.S. Rep. Kay Granger's retirement from Congress means for Fort Worth, Jillson said. The longtime Fort Worth Republican representative rose the ranks to appropriations chair, a powerful role in which national security was among her funding priorities.
"She, as appropriations chair, had her arms around all of this and had defended the F-35 over the years, and with her being gone, there's not only a new chair, there's a junior congressman from Fort Worth who's going to be the point person on trying to save the F-35," Jillson said.
Granger's predecessor, Craig Goldman, a Fort Worth Republican, has promised to defend the program's continuation and expansion.
"I'm going to fight like hell to make sure those cuts aren't made," Goldman said in a Nov. 26 interview.
"One person cannot cut the F-35 program," he said.
"He can say he wants to cut things all day, but until Congress acts, not one cut -- to my knowledge -- can be made, unless it's part of executive orders that have control over certain amounts of money."
Veasey predicted that DOGE will be used to identify cuts, but that "Trump will find it's going to be hard to get these cuts moved through Congress."
"Musk will make these recommendations, and Trump will try to push the envelope as much as he can through executive order, to try and implement some of these things that Elon Musk wants him to do," Veasey said. "And it's going to ultimately, I think, come down to how much the federal judiciary can withstand, and ultimately the Supreme Court, how much they're going to push back, and what they're going to allow Trump to do."
Cornyn was not available for comment. Spokespersons for Sen. Ted Cruz did not return an email seeking comment.
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