Donald Trump has called for a cancellation of the current Air Force One program with Boeing.
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!¹
This is kind of interesting on a number of levels.
1. Donald Trump owns about $50-100K of Boeing stock. That stock dropped a bit after Trump's tweet.
2. A new, stock 747 costs about $360M. These are not stock planes, however — from an operating theater to air defenses to a communication system that can send a broadcast from 40,000 feet in the air, this is not a bargain brand 747.
3. This is an order for two Air Force Ones.³
4. It's unclear where Trump is getting his numbers from; the original announced program price was about $1.7B, though the Air Force was now estimating $3B. Only $26M has been awarded to Boeing so far.
5. The planes won't go online until 2024 (according to the schedule), so there would have been a slight chance that Trump would have gotten to fly on one. The Air Force, though, was pushing for faster delivery (which equals higher cost), because of the cost and risks of maintaining the existing pair of 747-200s.
6. Trump currently owns a 757, which he's done his campaigning from. There's been some speculation that he's not all that interested in flying on Air Force One instead, though, honestly, it's such a huge status symbol, I can't imagine him skipping it. Also, it has special defense, communications, and safety equipment.
Though it doesn't have the gold-plated safety belts or 57" HD TV that Trump's plane has.²
7. The current 747-200s (technically VC-25As) first flew in 1990, and were ordered under the Reagan administration. Boeing stopped making the plane 20 years ago. The current plans were originally started under G. W. Bush, but delayed due to the economy.
8. The original plans for using the 747-8 — which can fly 1,000 miles further than the current Air Force One — were announced in January 2015. Depending on what Trump actually plans on doing once in an official position to do something, that could push the program back another year or two. Which means his successor would be flying on older, less reliable equipment.
9. This is not without precedent. Obama canceled the analogous Marine One helicopter program when he came into office, due to ever-increasing costs; that contract has since been restarted.
So … honest outrage against spiraling expense? A strategic way of looking like a cost-cutting Man of the People that won't directly affect him? Negotiating tactic against Boeing to get them to cut their anticipated price increases?
Stay tuned!
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Also tweeted: Victory Rally schedule for North Carolina, Iowa, and Michigan!
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¹ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/806134244384899072
² http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trumps-private-plane-air-force-one-950994
³ Technically, "Air Force One" applies to any flight the President is on.
Also note that Boeing is a US company. Not sure that Trump wants to steer the award to Airbus.
And I just ran across THIS. https://www.google.com/amp/www.forbes.com/sites/scotthamilton5/2016/11/09/trumps-election-casts-doubt-on-boeings-bank-international-aviation-trade-will-he-pivot/?client=safari
+John E. Bredehoft And there really isn't any domestic alternative to Boeing at this point. And, yes, the optics of the POTUS arriving on an Airbus would not be helpful. (Not that Trump is worried about losing more votes in Washington State.)