“Prime Minister Abe, who is...(a) great guy, when he came over, he said, ‘Thank you,’” Trump said in a speech to a meeting in Florida. “I said, ‘For what?’ (Then he said,) ‘You saved us many many millions of dollars on the F-35 fighter jet,’” he said.

“I know the media will never thank me so. At least Japan is thanking me, right?” Trump said.

Abe visited the United States earlier in February for his first summit talks with Trump.

Before taking office, Trump said costs have spun out of control for the F-35 stealth fighter, jointly developed by nine countries including the United States and Britain. After his inauguration, the president agreed with Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the fighter, on a cost reduction.

Japan’s Air-Self Defense Force plans to deploy the F-35 to the Misawa base in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in fiscal 2017, which starts in April. (Jiji Press)