Trump's tweet about the 'out of control' F-35 program just cost Lockheed Martin $4 billion

UPDATE 2:26 p.m. EST:

President-elect Donald Trump's tweet hit Lockheed Martin hard. The company lost $4 billion in market value on Monday, CNBC reports.

That amounts to $28 million per character of tweet.

Lockheed competitors Boeing and General Dynamics' stocks also slipped after he tweeted Monday morning.

Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that the F-35 fighter jet program is "out of control."

The F-35 is made by Lockheed Martin, one of the biggest defense contractors in the world. 

The company's stock dropped 2.6 percent after Trump's tweet, Reuters reports. A week before the election, Lockheed Martin inked a $6.1 billion deal for the F-35 program after more than a year of negotiations. 

Here's the Trump tweet. It came after unrelated tweets about Russia and the CIA.

Last week, Trump made a similar statement about Boeing, the makers of Air Force One.

The context

When Trump tweeted about Boeing, he claimed the $4 billion costs were "out of control." Boeing later countered by saying its contract was only for $170 million, though it had budgeted $2.7 billion.

Trump made a similar statement in a Fox News Sunday interview. A Lockheed Martin spokesman told The Wall Street Journal, “We look forward to working with the president-elect and his administration to further build on the F-35 program’s record of demonstrated performance and affordability.”

More on the F-35

The F-35 program is the Pentagon's "most costly acquisition program," according to the Government Accountability Office. The very expensive jets (roughly $400 billion for 2,400) are extremely advanced but have proved to be problematic. 

Additionally, United Technologies makes the engines for the F-35, the Journal reports. United also owns Carrier Corp., which Trump struck a deal with to keep some jobs from moving to Mexico, later facing criticism for dubious reports about jobs saved.

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