President-elect Donald Trump is now going after Boeing, the aircraft company who is contracted to build the presidential plane, Air Force One. Trump tweeted that the cost of building Air Force One is "out of control," and that the "order" for the plane should be "canceled." Boeing is a US-based company (the type of thing Trump purportedly supports) who has been contracted to build the "flying Oval Office" since Roosevelt was president.
"The plane is totally out of control. It’s going to be over $4 billion for the Air Force One program and I think it’s ridiculous," Trump said to reporters shortly after he tweeted, the New York Daily News reports. "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," Trump added.
Boeing was recently awarded a $25.8 million contract to carry out research for replacing the current fleet of Air Force One aircrafts, and a second $127.3 million contract for "interior, power, and electronic specifications," according to the New York Daily News.
Boeing describes itself as the "biggest manufacturing exporter" in the United States, and the company's CEO Dennis Muilenburg spoke to the Washington Post Monday, expressing concern over Trump's anti-trade rhetoric. "I'm not a political pundit or prognosticator, we have too many of those," Muilenbirg said. "But anyone who paid attention to the recent campaigns and the election results realizes that one of the overarching themes was apprehension about free and fair trade."
The New York Daily News reports that officials with Trump's transition team defended the president-elect's threat, saying he was following through on his campaign promises to slash government budgets. Meanwhile, it's costing New York more than a million dollars a day to protect Trump and his family.
