{"id":120746,"date":"2026-01-13T02:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T02:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/120746\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T02:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T02:14:44","slug":"defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-praises-f-35-workers-during-visit-to-lockheed-martin-plant-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/120746\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praises F-35 workers during visit to Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a visit to Lockheed Martin’s massive Fort Worth<\/a> plant, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> praised the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet and the workers who build it.<\/p>\n

Hegseth addressed some of the facility’s roughly 19,000 employees Monday afternoon as part of his Arsenal of Freedom tour, calling the jet central to the Trump administration’s defense priorities.<\/p>\n

“We’re rebuilding our military. This is why we’re doing the Arsenal of Freedom tour,” Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

He toured the facility and signed the bomb bay of an F-35 jet on display. Hegseth said the aircraft is part of President Donald Trump’s plan to increase the U.S. defense budget from $901 billion in fiscal year 2026 to $1.5 trillion in 2027.<\/p>\n

“We are rebuilding the arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth said. “President Trump did it in his first term, and we’re going to do it again. We had a historic budget last year, and the president has now announced a goal of $1.5 trillion for our national defense budget in 2027. That is a message to the world.”<\/p>\n

Hegseth also credited the F-35 with playing a significant role in a recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela<\/a>. On Jan. 3, the U.S. military seized Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro <\/a>without any U.S. troops being killed, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

Hegseth praised both the service members involved in the mission and Lockheed Martin employees who build the aircraft.<\/p>\n

“You are a core function of the arsenal of freedom,” he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ted Cruz<\/a>, R-Texas, was among the lawmakers touring the facility with Hegseth. Cruz told reporters the operation highlighted the United States’ technological edge and military training.<\/p>\n

“We all saw on January 3 just how transformational the technological advantage of the United States is, combined with the exquisite training of our fighting men and women,” Cruz said.<\/p>\n

Cruz said he earlier met in San Antonio<\/a> with soldiers wounded during the operation to capture Maduro.<\/p>\n

“I told all three of those soldiers that what you participated in was history,” Cruz said. “You were living history, and the world is safer because of it.”<\/p>\n

Cruz added that he hopes the operation will lead to free and fair elections in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Watch Eye On Politics<\/a> at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming.<\/p>\n

Follow Jack on X: @cbs11jack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During a visit to Lockheed Martin’s massive Fort Worth plant, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the F-35…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2415,116,118,117,3310],"class_list":{"0":"post-120746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-eye-on-politics","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-news","12":"tag-pete-hegseth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}