In West Palm Beach, Florida, President Donald Trump visited a Boeing aircraft to inspect new features and technologies. The purpose of the visit was to showcase the delay in the delivery of the upgraded Air Force One presidential aircraft, as stated by the White House on Saturday.
Trump visited the 13-year-old private aircraft parked at Palm Beach International Airport.
“President Trump is exploring a new Boeing aircraft to see the latest hardware and technology,” explained Steven Cheung, the White House communications director. “This draws attention to the failure of the project to deliver a new Air Force One according to the original timeline.”
Air Force One is a modified version of the Boeing 747, with two planes currently in use for the President’s travels due to the age of the original aircraft. Although Boeing Inc. is responsible for manufacturing the updated models, the project has experienced significant delays, causing financial losses for the company.
Delivery initially was set for 2024, but has been pushed to some time in 2027 for the first plane and in 2028 – Trump’s final year in office – for the second, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Trump has railed against the project’s cost and delivery delays. He told Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk during an online chat in 2024 on Musk’s X social media platform that he was able to cut more than $1 billion from the project by playing hard ball with Boeing during his first term in office.
“Over a course of about four weeks, by my saying I’m not going to do it, I got the price reduced by $1.6 billion for the exact same plane, other than we had a nicer paint job, if you want to know the truth, but for the exact same plane,” Trump said.
Musk, a billionaire, helped bankroll Trump’s 2024 campaign and is leading a new Department of Government Efficiency that is working to shrink the size of government by cutting spending, eliminating agencies and slashing the federal workforce. Musk has been criticized for his methods.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said last month that Musk is working with the company to help speed delivery of the Air Force One replacements.
Trump is also interested in changing the color scheme of Air Force One from light blue to a darker blue. An earlier attempt by Trump to switch the colors was dropped by then-President Joe Biden after a study concluded that doing so would require additional testing and cause further delays, adding to the cost.
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