Follow @lynnsweetWASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to cancel or renegotiate Boeing’s pending Air Force One deal, accusing the Chicago company, with no evidence, of “doing a little bit of a number” over costs.
Trump hit Boeing on Tuesday morning via Twitter posts and in very brief remarks delivered in the lobby of his Trump Tower in Manhattan.
“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!” Trump said in a morning tweet.
A few hours later, talking to reporters inside the Trump Tower lobby in New York, Trump said, “The plane is totally out of control. It’s going to be over $4 billion for Air Force One program and I think it’s ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.”
OPINION
Follow @lynnsweetAfter that, Trump referred to one of his books when he said in another Twitter post, “Have you not read Art of The Deal? This is how I strike my deals. If Air Force One costs more than $4 Billion, Boeing you are fired!”
Boeing’s corporate headquarters is in the Loop and has manufacturing facilities in Washington State.
FACT CHECK
At present, there is no order to cancel. But there could be.
Currently, Boeing has a $170 million contract to “help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States,” the company said in a statement.
Boeing will eventually also get the contract to make the planes — if Trump doesn’t nix the deal.
According to the General Accounting Office, delivery is planned for fiscal year 2024. The $4 billion figure Trump used is sort of in the ballpark for two planes. In a March report, the GAO pegged research, development and actual procurement at about $3.5 billion.
BACKGROUND
Any plane the president is on is called Air Force One. The aircraft most associated with AF1 are two 747-200Bs with iconic blue markings. The current fleet was bought in 1987, when Ronald Reagan was president. The first one was used in 1990, when George H.W. Bush was in the White House.
BIG IRONY ALERT
The Boeing executive in charge of the company when the U.S. Air Force decided Boeing should make the replacement AF1 jets was Jim McNerney, then Boeing’s Chicago-based Chairman and CEO.
Trump can easily get the inside story about Boeing’s AF1 costs and profits from McNerney. On Dec. 2, Trump named him as an adviser, tapping him for a slot on his newly created “President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.” The group will meet at the White House in February.
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McNerney plays both sides of the street.
President Barack Obama appointed him to chair the advisory President’s Export Council and for a spot on another advisory panel, The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
In May 2015, Obama named McNerney to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. In September 2015, Boeing pledged $20 million to help expand the performing arts center.
WHY NO COMPETITIVE BIDDING?
AF1 gives a president a flying White House. Boeing is the only U.S. company the Air Force says has the ability to build the replacement aircraft — based on a 747-8.
The Air Force decided on Boeing as the sole-source provider in early 2015. The only other company with that kind of capacity is the Airbus, headquartered in France.
“Boeing is in the early stages of negotiating the next generation Air Force One — which serves as a fully-functional command center for the President. We don’t know what it will ultimately cost,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. If Trump “is suggesting we give this work to Airbus, that’s not good for American jobs.”
WHY NOW?
A Trump source said Trump did not act in the wake of a Tuesday Chicago Tribune story about Boeing’s concerns over Trump’s China trade policies. Rather, Trump spoke out because he learned about the costs for the aircraft.
