Trump has met with Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of Boeing, and Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin. Supposedly the intent was to lower prices on F-35 jets and Air Force One planes.
There are mandated procedures to follow for any military contract. There are reasons for such procedures, including transparency and accountability. That Trump is overriding these procedures isn't making things better or lowering costs—he's only adding confusion and chaos, the end product of which will most likely result in increased costs or broken and fractured projects. Probably both.
Trump is acting more like a petty banana republic dictator than the President of the US.
And what do we gain by such antics?
Rather than "save" 1400 Carrier jobs, the state of Indiana saved 800, to the tune of $7 million dollars over ten years. Trump took credit but the deal was Indiana's. Since then, we've come to find out that Carrier's investment in the plant is to introduce automation most likely cutting the jobs that were saved.
Trump claimed to save Ford jobs, but there never was any intention of closing down any Ford plant.
Now, Trump's people claim that he extracted a promise from Muilenburg that Air Force One won't cost $4 billion. A claim erroneously repeated by the media. According to the Reuters story:
“We’re going to get it done for less than that, and we’re committed to working together to make sure that happens," Muilenburg said, telling reporters he gave Trump a "personal commitment" that costs would not run out of control.
The costs were never going to be $4 billion for one plane, as Trump claimed in his infamous tweet that sent Boeing stock prices swinging.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
ABC News did a fact check on Trump's original complaint. As they noted, the projected new Air Force One costs are $3.2 billion dollars, and this is for two brand new jets, not one.
In the meantime, Trump is having discussions with corporate leaders and making who knows what promises, that aren't being tracked because he's technically not President. Even when he is President, there's no guarantee of transparency in his Administration. What regulations is he promising to gut in exchange for making him look good?
Regardless of the facts—nasty things that Trump continues to trip over—we can't have a President who impulsively yanks companies about in order to impress the masses because he needs some other way to get his daily adulation fix since his "thank you" tour is over.
He's making a mockery of his position. He's making a mockery of all of us.
This is not normal.
