Trump Says He Will Personally Negotiate Air Force One Price With Boeing -- 2nd Update

By Damian Paletta and Daniel Nasaw 

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he would personally "negotiate the prices" with Boeing Co. of the planes to be used as Air Force One, promising to block a future order if necessary and to continue using the existing aircraft for the presidential plane.

Mr. Trump, in a Wednesday morning interview on NBC, said he had spoken to Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg on Tuesday following criticism Mr. Trump leveled at the company about what he perceived were elevated prices for the planes. Mr. Trump accused the company of attempting to charge more than $4 billion to build the new planes, a figure that the White House and Air Force have disputed.

While presidents do become personally involved in many negotiations, such as trade deals or legislation with Congress, it is much less common for them to be intimately involved in government procurement contracts.

Mr. Trump, in the NBC interview, said he saw this as part of his job.

"That's what I'm here for," he said. "I'm going to negotiate the prices."

In a statement, Boeing confirmed Mr. Trump had spoken to Mr. Muilenburg by phone and said the company's chief "committed to working with the new administration to control costs as they establish requirements for the new Air Force One to keep the program as affordable as possible and deliver the best value to American taxpayers."

Also in the interview, Mr. Trump said he was going to put together a series of government policies to encourage business growth. "We're getting rid of 90%, maybe 85% of the regulations which are stifling business," he said.

The president-elect also went into greater detail about his decision in June to sell his stock holdings, revealed by his campaign on Tuesday.

"I felt that I was very much going to be winning" and that it would be a "conflict of interest owning all of these different companies," he said. "I don't think it's appropriate for me to be owning stocks."

He also praised the man he will succeed in the White House, saying that he and President Barack Obama have "really good chemistry" and that he had run ideas for cabinet picks by him.

"I've now gotten to know President Obama," Mr. Trump said in the NBC interview, which marked his pick as Time magazine's person of the year. "I really like him. We have a really good chemistry together. We talk."

He said Mr. Obama "loves the country, he wants to do right by the country. I really like him as a person."

Mr. Trump is in the process of assembling his cabinet and top advisers, having announced his choices for the secretaries of commerce, defense, education, housing and urban development, health and human services, and treasury, as well as national security adviser. Mr. Trump said he expected to name his pick for secretary of state next week. He said there would be other "big announcements" on Wednesday and Thursday.

"I have asked him what he would think of this one and that one," Mr. Trump said of Mr. Obama, adding he takes Mr. Obama's suggestions "very seriously."

"We have a very good dialogue," he said on NBC. "I do like him. I love getting his ideas."

Doug Cameron contributed to this article.

Write to Damian Paletta at [e-mail] and Daniel Nasaw at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 07, 2016 11:10 ET (16:10 GMT)

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