Rage-tweets over ‘$4B’ Prez plane

DONALD TRUMP demanded Tuesday that the Pentagon cancel a contract with Boeing for the construction of new presidential planes, tweeting that the fleet’s price tag had grown “out of control” — moments after the publication of a story in which the aviation giant’s CEO criticized the President-elect over his trade stance.

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Trump tweeted. “Cancel order!” Soon after, he repeated the charge to reporters inside the Trump Tower.

“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.

“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,” he added.

While Trump transition officials said the tweets were simply evidence of the kind of cost-cutting moves promised by the President-elect, they were posted online just 22 minutes after the publication of a Chicago Tribune story that quoted Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg criticizing Trump’s anti-trade stance.

In the article Muilenburg, whose predecessor at Boeing Jim McNerney is an economic adviser to Trump, suggests that the President-elect “back off” from his trade position.

Trump transition officials did not respond to questions about whether the mogul’s tweet was in response to the article about Muilenburg.

They also would not say where Trump got the $4 billion figure from.

In January, the Pentagon announced that Boeing had won a contract to begin work on replacing the current Air Force One fleet. That initial contract, for preliminary research on two new planes, was priced at $25.8 million, and the Defense Department awarded a second $127.3 million contract in July for Boeing to develop “interior, power and electronic specifications” for the planes.

The Air Force, however, has allocated $2.9 billion for the endeavor through 2021, according to U.S. budget documents, while the estimated total costs, according to a March 2016 Government Accountability Office report, amount to about $3.2 billion.

The Pentagon has already technically spent $93 million on