Boeing, Trump, and Musk

This is Elon Musk visiting the Boeing factory in Texas. Wait, what on Earth (or in space) is he doing at Boeing?

On behalf of the Trump Administration (not SpaceX), he visited his aerospace rival to review the progress of Air Force One, which is significantly delayed and facing a budget overrun of $2.7 billion. Who would know? Perhaps he suggested removing 'unnecessary' parts to speed things up.

In December 2016, then-President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that “costs are out of control” for the more than $4 billion price tag for the new Air Force One and that he wanted to cancel the order. In 2018, after taking some time to negotiate, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion contract for two new Air Force Ones. Trump Administration was proud of their achievement by dropping the price dramatically from the original proposal, which was the cost-plus contract valued at $5.3 billion. It seemed like that Trump proved the lessons in his book “The Art of Deal” actually work.

But now in 2025, it seems that the Air Force One deal has turned into a disaster and neither Trump nor Boeing is happy with it.

Unless Boeing finds a way to recover the schedule, it is expected that the new Air Force One won’t be ready until 2029, meaning that Trump won’t receive the aircraft during his term. (Trump’s 2nd term will end on Jan 20th, 2029) Considering that Boeing originally promised to deliver the first aircraft by late 2024, Trump must be extremely frustrated.

Boeing has been going through a long dark tunnel and 2024 was the worst year of its history. The 737 MAX issues, lawsuits with suppliers, employee strikes, murder investigations, leadership changes, and failure of Starliner. To be honest, I would be surprised if the delay of Air Force One was even on Boeing’s top 10 priority list.

But now Trump is back in the White House and Musk as an auditor walking across the site, Boeing would have to spend more time and resources to expedite the project. It is said that the master schedule is due this spring, so we will soon find out the best Boeing can offer.

Rewinding the clock back to 2018, then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg agreed to accept the deal because the company was profitable at the time, and building a good relationship with the new Administration was a priority. But it didn’t turn out as planned and now Boeing’s new leaders would have to take care of this mess.

It feels awkward to see Musk touring around Boeing’s site though. As said, history is merely a list of surprises and all we can do is prepare to be surprised again.

Boeing and Trump back in 2018. They both seem happy...