Trump says he’s saved US$1b from Air Force One project, but the claim doesn’t seem to fly

The US Air Force can’t account for US$1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the programme to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing jets to serve as Air Force One.

“To my knowledge I have not been told that we have that information,” Colonel Pat Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, said Wednesday when asked how Trump had managed to reduce the price for the new presidential plane. “I refer you to the White House,” Ryder said. A White House spokesman didn’t respond to repeated inquiries about Trump’s comments.

Trump has boasted that he’s personally intervened to cut the costs, but without explaining exactly how.

“They were close to signing a US$4.2 billion deal to have a new Air Force One,” Trump said at a rally on Saturday in Florida. “Can you believe this? I said, ‘No way.’ I said, ‘I refuse to fly in a US$4.2 billion airplane. I refuse.’ ”

Instead, Trump said, “we got that price down by over US$1 billion, and I probably haven’t spoken, to be honest with you, for more than an hour on the project. I got the generals in, who are fantastic. I got Boeing in. But I told Boeing it’s not good enough. We’re not going to do it. The price is still too high.”

The programme to replace the ageing Air Force One is in its early stages, and the service is still working to refine its “Acquisition Program Baseline” — the metrics needed to say how much the programme may cost.