President Donald Trump purportedly knocked a billion dollars off the price tag of the new Air Force One planes manufactured by Boeing, he told an audience at a campaign rally in Florida.
Trump told the audience Saturday he only spent an hour or so directly negotiating with Boeing. The new Air Force One Boeing 747s would not be delivered to the U.S. Air Force until 2024, and originally were slated to cost approximately $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,” Boeing’s CEO told reporters during the presidential transition. He continued that he gave Trump a “personal commitment” to cut costs on the project.
Trump also highlighted his cost cutting maneuvers with respect to the Lockheed Martin F-35 program. “We cut approximately $600 million off the F-35 fighter, and that only amounts to 90 planes out of close to 3,000 planes,” Trump told a White House audience Jan 30. He continued at the rally that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe personally thanked him for lowering the cost of the F-35, which is also being purchased by U.S. allies.
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