Trump said to meet Boeing CEO a second time over Air Force One
WASHINGTON — Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg will meet for the second time since the election with president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to discuss his company’s contract to build the next-generation version of Air Force One, the main presidential aircraft, according to a person familiar with plans to hold the meeting.
The person, who asked not to be identified discussing a private meeting, didn’t have details on which aspect of the plane would be discussed. Mr. Trump shook the defense industry — and put all large US companies with government contracts on notice — when he tweeted Dec. 6 that “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!”
In the wake of that comment, Mr. Muilenburg vowed that Chicago-based Boeing could build a new version of Air Force One for less than $4 billion.
“We’re going to get it done for less than that, and we’re committed to working together to make sure that happens,” Mr. Muilenburg said as he left the presidentelect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month. Mr. Muilenburg said he gave Mr. Trump his “personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company.”
FLYING WHITE HOUSE
More than a potent symbol of US power, Air Force One planes are outfitted to highly classified specifications, which include secure communications and antimissile defenses, so they can operate as a flying White House in a national crisis. Boeing is currently under contract for $170 million to help determine the capabilities of the complex military aircraft.
Boeing isn’t the only defense contractor that’s felt the fury of Mr. Trump’s tweets. Lockheed Martin Corp. CEO Marillyn Hewson has met twice with Mr. Trump after he attacked the company for “out of control costs” on the F-35 jet, the largest US weapons program. The $379 billion program for over 3,000 fighters started development in 2001 after Lockheed beat Boeing in the winnertake-all contest. The 200th aircraft was delivered January 11.
Mr. Trump even called on Boeing to “price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet” to compete with the F-35, a proposal defense analysts said was probably unworkable given the different roles and capabilities of the two fighters.
After the president-elect’s criticism, Ms. Hewson told Trump last week that Lockheed is close to a deal with the Pentagon to lower costs “significantly’’ on the next and largest production lot yet of F-35s.
‘BIG NUMBERS’
At the time of Mr. Trump’s tweet about Air Force One, it wasn’t immediately clear where his estimate of $4 billion originated. The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer said in an interview that the president-elect may be taking total acquisition costs and assuming that they are already built into the Boeing contract.
On Air Force One and the F-35, “He’s heard these big numbers,” Frank Kendall said in an interview. “Those are often program costs, or maybe acquisition total costs. They’re not contract values, necessarily.”
“The basic aircraft is a small fraction of that $4 billion — the 747s we’re buying — so Boeing has part of that cost but not all of that, by any means,” Mr. Kendall said. “We’re still negotiating with Boeing on that.”
Mr. Kendall praised the incoming president, who takes office Jan. 20, for his focus on reducing taxpayer expenses on large weapons contracts.
“His general interest in reducing costs is terrific — his focus on that is good, but I think there are a lot of details I think he needs to absorb before he can talk about specifics,” Mr. Kendall said. —