Art of the Bum Deal: Donald Trump has managed to increase the cost of Air Force One by $1 billion
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Donald Trump’s vaunted deal-making skills haven’t saved jobs at Carrier, or at Ford. He hasn’t convinced North Korea to surrender so much as a slingshot, despite giving up one of America’s biggest bargaining chips. And when it comes to Russia … toArt of the Bum Deal: Donald Trump has managed to increase the cost of Air Force One by $1 billion
Donald Trump’s vaunted deal-making skills haven’t saved jobs at Carrier, or at Ford. He hasn’t convinced North Korea to surrender so much as a slingshot, despite giving up one of America’s biggest bargaining chips. And when it comes to Russia … to be fair, that wasn’t as much bargaining as begging, so maybe it shouldn’t count. But how has Trump done on something with Real Numbers in it? Something where Trump bragged about his intervention even before taking office? Here’s Trump one year before moving to DC, going after the cost of creating a new version of Air Force One. xBoeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 However, the true cost of two new Air Force One planes, was budgeted at $2.87 billion. Though some estimates put the total at $3.73 billion by the time of completion in 2026, that still didn’t put it to the number Trump was throwing around. But Trump was okay with that. According to him, “Boeing is doing a little bit of a number” and trying to make too much money off the contract. But Trump would show them who was boss. Even before he sat down in the Oval Office, Trump claimed that he had been on the phone with Boeing and chopped down that big number. It was a claim he repeated several times in his first few months in office—his go-to example of his negotiating skills. Trump: We've got that price down by over $1 billion and I probably haven't spoken for more than an hour on the project, However, within a few weeks, the White House website had chopped Trump savings from “over a billion” to “millions.” And now, Donald Trump has completed his negotiations, coming up with a new price of … $3.9 billion. That’s right. After two years of negotiation, Donald Trump’s price is a billion dollars higher than where he started. No wonder everyone loves to negotiate with Trump. Read more