Paula Dwyer , Columnist

Trump's Boeing Provocation Could Backfire

In going after the Air Force One contract, Trump may be pressuring the company to close a China plant.

December 6, 2016 at 8:20 PM UTC

Paula Dwyer is a senior editor with the New York editing hub, focusing on daily and long-form enterprise. She was London bureau chief for Businessweek and Washington economics editor for the New York Times, and is a co-author of “Take on the Street: How to Fight for Your Financial Future.

Flights of fancy.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

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It was only a matter of time before Donald Trump's attention would turn to Boeing, the U.S.'s largest exporter and its second-largest defense contractor. One of Boeing's biggest customers happens to be China, the country the president-elect seems most intent on antagonizing.

On Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted that the Pentagon should cancel an order with Boeing Co. for a modernized 747 Air Force One, the plane that ferries the president around the world, because of what he said were ridiculous cost overruns. His tweet pegged the plane's cost at "more than $4 billion."