Boeing meets with Trump amid public pricing criticism
Dec 22, 2016, 5:22 AM
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg speaks to members of the media after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg met with the President-elect to discuss the company’s prices, while hopefully smoothing things over after Donald Trump’s highly public critiques of the company’s costs.
There are a couple deals between the aerospace company and the American government — for fighter jets and a new Air Force One. The Boeing CEO said the two parties came to an understanding about the costs while talking in Florida on Wednesday.
“It was a terrific conversation,” Muilenburg said. “I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a good man and he’s doing the right thing.”
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Boeing is slated to replace two 747-200 jets with two updated 747-8 planes to serve as the president’s Air Force One jets.
Trump and Boeing
But Trump has recently blasted the Air Force One project regarding its price. The President-elected tweeted on Dec. 6:
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!
The $4 billion price tag is too steep for Trump. And that’s not all. Six days later Trump took to Twitter again to vent about costs for the F-35 fighter jets:
The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
Muilenburg met with Trump after his high-profile critiques of the Air Force One deal. He reports that the conversation went well between the two parties.
“It went great. Very productive. I’m encouraged by the dialogue,” Muilenburg said. “We are all focused on the same thing here. We want to make sure we give our warfighters the best capability in the world and in a way that’s affordable for taxpayers.”
Muilenburg told Trump that costs would go down if the Air Force changes its requirements. The planes are still in the early stages of development and won’t be ready until 2024.
“We are going to get it done for less than that, and we are committed to working together to make sure that it happens,” he said. “I was able to give the President-elect my personal commitment on behalf of the Boeing Company.
“We work on Air Force One because it’s important to our country,” Muilenburg added.
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