Trump Views Boeing As “Lost Cause”, Empowers Elon With “Drastic Options” To Ensure Faster Air Force 1 Delivery: Report

Is Trump about to cancel Boeing’s iconic Air Force 1 contract?

According to a NYTimes report, Trump is furious about Boeing’s repeat delays in delivering two new Air Force One jets, and has “empowered Elon Musk to explore drastic options to prod Boeing to move faster, including relaxing security clearance standards for some who work on the presidential planes.”

According to the report, Trump has even discussed whether a luxury jet could be acquired and refitted during the wait. Musk, whom Trump views as an efficiency and productivity magician, has been central to the discussions — consulting with the military, the White House and Boeing, the NYT sources said.

The report goes on to note that Trump regards Boeing as “almost a lost cause”, and “often laments how far the company has fallen, wondering aloud what happened to the jet maker and why it seems incapable of building things anymore.”

The two heavily modified Boeing 747s currently used interchangeably to fly the president are more than 30 years old and require extensive servicing. And while Trump can have any airplane he wants (and does), the president still views Air Force One as a symbol of power and prestige, and he is infuriated that he begins his second term flying around in the same aging planes that once transported President George H.W. Bush.

Trump’s comments took on a more ominous tone in an interview broadcast Tuesday night on Fox News’s “Hannity” when speaking beside Musk, the president excoriated the company, saying, “I mean, they are actually in default, Boeing,” before adding: “They’ve been building this thing forever. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Trump, in a pointed demonstration about his willingness to explore other options, took time on Saturday to kick the tires on a luxury jet sitting at Palm Beach International Airport. Photographers spotted the tail number of the late model 747-8, which revealed the plane to have been owned, at least until recently, by the Qatari royal family, according to registration data.

The Air Force has already contractually committed to paying Boeing $3.5 billion of the $4.3 billion total set aside for the project. But Boeing is at least three years behind schedule and has already booked $2.4 billion in losses on the contract. 

Boeing’s contract to build the new planes was first signed in 2018, and the planes were originally expected to be delivered in 2024. But now, Boeing’s executives have indicated to the government that they might not be able to deliver the new Air Force Ones until the end of Trump’s second term. 

But Musk, who is known for setting aggressive deadlines at his companies, has insisted that at least one of the planes can be delivered within a year’s time.

And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with Trump’s demand to get a working plane soon – after all, it is hardly a secret that Boeing has indeed become the butt of all aerospace jokes in the past 5 years under its catastrophic DEI-empowering leadership – the NYT’s angle is, what else, that it would be catastrophic to give Musk even more independent to realign government as he sees fit, especially when a company so critical to the deep state, Boeing, is in the mdidle of it. 

Indeed, as the NYT notes, “depending on how extensive the pullback would be for lowering security requirements, the cost of speeding the production schedule for the new planes could be to compromise the president’s safety, or the nation’s security, if not managed with extreme care. Boeing executives have argued that there is a safe way to do this, by lowering the security standards for certain classes of workers who do not touch the airplanes’ most sensitive systems.”

A Boeing spokeswoman declined to answer questions, writing in a statement, “We don’t have anything to share.”

Boeing stock dumped to session lows on the report which initially made it seem like Boeing was about to lose the contract, and perhaps others, but has since rebounded as readers realized that this is just another hit piece on Elon.