If he is elected to a second term, former President Donald Trump could revive his plan to repaint Air Force One to look like his private plane — red, white, and dark blue.
Recently, the new Trump-Vance Boeing 737-800 was seen at Kansas City International Airport, displaying his preferred colors.
A former senior Trump White House official told Politico that the Republican nominee has not abandoned the idea of using his preferred colors on the presidential aircraft.
The Air Force is still working on the two previously contracted Boeing 747-8s, which are expected to be delivered in 2026 and 2027, to replace the current aircraft.
This project has not only experienced significant delays but also substantial cost overruns beyond its initial budget.
Even though the planes are intended to feature the traditional white-and-light-blue paint job that has adorned presidential aircrafts since the Kennedy administration, there is still time for Trump to order a new color scheme.
In 2019, Trump told ABC host George Stephanopoulos that he wanted to change the traditional pattern on the Air Force One with a design he had created himself.
“I’m doing that for other presidents, not for me,” he said.
Given that Trump’s preferred colors would require expensive design modifications, the Biden administration rejected the plan and reinstated the traditional color scheme.
“The model was on the coffee table in the Oval Office, and he pointed it out many times to foreign and domestic visitors,” the former senior Trump White House official told the outlet.
“He thought it represented America more and represented strength, the red, white and blue,” the official said.
According to Boeing, the dark blue paint on the underside of the plane and its engines may cause excessive temperatures, potentially requiring additional engineering work, further delays, and out-of-pocket expenses.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung was dismissive of Biden’s decision to scrap Trump’s order.
“Sounds like Joe Biden hates the Red, White, and Blue,” Cheung said.
However, he did not specify whether Trump would change the color of Air Force One.
In 2018, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion contract for two modified 747-8s to replace the existing Air Force One aircraft.
At the time, the company agreed to a fixed-price contract with the Air Force, meaning that any additional costs from changes to the airplane would be at Boeing’s expense rather than the government.
The program is more than $2 billion over budget.
In 2022, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said that the company should never have agreed to Trump’s terms for the Air Force contract.
Opposed to Trump’s initiative, Democrats pushed to limit changes to the paint job or interior decorations on this program after taking control of the House in 2019.
Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), who sponsored this proposal, said Congress needed to control the “less essential aspects” of the new planes and prevent a potential “backdoor for the program to hemorrhage” funds.
“The president will have an opportunity to make some suggestions and changes to the plane,” Courtney said during the House Armed Services Committee deliberations on the defense bill.
“But we do want to keep this within the parameters of the existing contract process so that, again, we’re not creating additional costs for the operation of the plane,” he added.
On the other hand, Republicans said the program was being used to target Trump.
Former Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) criticized this proposal as “an attempt to just poke at the president.”
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“Prior to 2017, I don’t recall attempts to block things like paint colors,” Byrne said.
Even though the measure did not pass the Senate, lawmakers approved a compromise bill requiring the Air Force to notify Congress before any additional work on the aircraft.
