Trump Looks to IBM and Others to Help Fix Outdated U.S. Computers

President Trump called on IBM (NYSE:IBM) and other companies to help improve the nation’s antiquated government computer system during meeting with a group of CEOs at the White House Tuesday.

“We have a computer system in this country that’s 40 years old,” Trump said. “So when you hear we are hacked and we’re this and we are like easy targets… one of the things we are doing is, in fact, we are working with a very, very wonderful woman from IBM and others.” IBM CEO Ginni Rometty was one of the business leaders meeting with Trump, along with top White House officials including Gary Cohn, Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus to name a few.

Trump hopes to neutralize the high cost of updating and maintaining the computers with a “massive” upgrade which includes brand new equipment. “I’ve heard anywhere… from $39 billion to $89 billion a year… That’s for keeping our computers updated and running,” he said.  “I think we can buy a whole new system for less money than that.”

Despite the shout out to IBM, Trump clarified that he looks at many companies across multiple industries when evaluating products and services.

“When I said to Lockheed, I like the F-35 fighter jets, then I said but I also like the Boeing F-18. So I love you’re [IBM] computers, but we are also looking at others,” he added.

Trump is no stranger to calling out public companies, verbally or on social media, for better or worse. Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Ford (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) have all earned mentions on his Twitter feed.

GM CEO Mary Barra also attended the meeting today, as did Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (NYSE:WMT) and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi (NYSE:PEP) among others. This is one of several CEO gatherings hosted by Trump since he won the November 2016 election.