'Cancel It!' Trump says new Air Force One cost ridiculous
NEW YORK (AP) — The government should cancel its multibillion-dollar order for new Air Force One presidential planes, Donald Trump declared Tuesday, serving notice he's ready to jump in and start making decisions six weeks before his inauguration.
The company said in a statement, We are currently under contract for $170 million to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the president of the United States.
Trump now uses his own plane, a Boeing 757, which he has outfitted with white leather and gold, a large flat-screen television and a bedroom.
At that Cincinnati stop, Trump disparaged the media as "dishonest," inspired loud "Build the wall" chants, took swipes at fellow Republicans and stunned his own aides with his surprise announcement from the stage that he was appointing retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense.
Before leaving for North Carolina Tuesday, Trump was slated to hold a number of meetings in New York, including with Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil; Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who is meeting about a diplomatic post, and radio host Laura Ingraham who is being considered for press secretary.
[...] Mattis, a widely praised battlefield commander, spent decades in the Marines but now is tapped to run the nation's largest government agency, the Defense Department, with 740,000 civilian employees in addition to 1.3 million service personnel.