--- title: Donald Trump, Boeing Reach $3.9B Deal for Air Force One description: Donald Trump reached an informal deal with Boeing Co. on a fixed-price contract for the new Air Force One program canonical: https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-27T16:27:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:35.590Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Made An 'Informal' $3.9 Billion Air Force One Deal og:description: The White House says it'll save taxpayers over a billion dollars og:url: https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: Trump Air Force One Boeing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Made An 'Informal' $3.9 Billion Air Force One Deal twitter:description: The White House says it'll save taxpayers over a billion dollars twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Made an 'Informal' $3.9 Billion Air Force One Deal > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Donald Trump Wants to Cancel Boeing's Air Force One Contract [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Wants to Cancel Boeing's Air Force One Contract](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e0sGa3g4.m3u8) (0:31)  _Published 2016-12-06. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday demanded that the U.S. Air Force cancel its Air Force One contract with Boeing, claiming that “costs are out of control.”_ by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Feb 27, 2018 4:27 PM UTC  President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on October 7, 2017 in Maryland. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on October 7, 2017 in Maryland. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images by [Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Bloomberg Contributor Feb 27, 2018 4:27 PM UTC President Donald Trump reached an informal deal with Boeing Co. on a fixed-price contract for the new Air Force One program that will cost $3.9 billion, according to White House officials. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday that the agreement will save taxpayers $1.4 billion from the original estimate for two presidential aircraft and the development program associated with purchasing and outfitting them, although it wasn’t clear where that estimate came from. The pact may help set the stage for a modernized Air Force One program after Trump criticized its cost, threatened to cancel the order and later boasted of negotiating with Chicago-based Boeing to reduce the expense. The Air Force said it saved some money last year when he reached a deal with Boeing for two 747 jets to serve as Air Force One, taking advantage of an unusual limited-time discount on planes once bound for Russia. But much of the costs for the presidential plane come from pricey and complex modifications required to turn the aircraft into the flying fortresses that ferry U.S. presidents around the world. “President Trump negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people,” Boeing said in a tweet. The shares rose less than 1 percent to $366.29 at 10:49 a.m. in New York. In February last year, Trump said the Air Force was “close to signing a $4.2 billion deal” and that “we got that price down by over $1 billion.” But the Air Force said at the time that it was unaware of what savings the president was referring to and that the service didn’t have an established cost estimate for the entire program. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/"},"headline":"President Trump Made an 'Informal' $3.9 Billion Air Force One Deal","datePublished":"2018-02-27T16:27:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:35.590Z","description":"The White House says it'll save taxpayers over a billion dollars","url":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bloomberg","jobTitle":"Contributor","url":"https://time.com/author/bloomberg/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt48c7cd75a960930b/6989290386f68e3f6e6e86f2/trump-air-force-one-boeing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Air Force One Boeing","caption":"Trump Air Force One Boeing","creditText":"BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/","name":"President Trump Made an 'Informal' $3.9 Billion Air Force One Deal"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Wants to Cancel Boeing's Air Force One Contract","description":"President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday demanded that the U.S. Air Force cancel its Air Force One contract with Boeing, claiming that “costs are out of control.”","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/e0sGa3g4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-12-06T15:34:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/e0sGa3g4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/","duration":"PT31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5177594/donald-trump-boeing-air-force-one/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```