Long before Trump was even inaugurated, the Obama administration negotiated a contract with Boeing to replace Air Force One.
The cost of the Obama administration's contract was $2.87 billion through the year 2021 with additional costs incurred over the expected lifetime of the plane.
Now, Trump, in all his abundant arrogance, claimed that he would save the federal government at least $1 billion by negotiating a new deal with Boeing but, as you know, Trump doesn't really make deals.
Not only did he not save the federal government a billion dollars, his claims have actually grown since then to $1.5 billion in savings even though we now know the cost of his contract with Boeing will be $3.9 billion.
"Boeing gave us a good deal," Trump told CBS, adding that he saved $1.5 billion on the project.
Trump "has emphasized the need to minimize the cost of replacing the two existing Air Force One aircraft," the White House said in a statement Wednesday. The statement said the contract saved taxpayers about $1.4 billion over the initial contract.
However, Trump had previously criticized an estimate close to the final cost: "Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!" he tweeted in December 2016.
It seems likely that the project will end up costing more than $3.9 billion because things like this always do.
It's likely the Obama administration's contract for $2.87 billion also would have cost more than that, but we can say with total certainty that Trump did not save any money. Rather than save a billion dollars, it appears that he increased the cost by a billion dollars.
There's been no word on how much his special paint job will cost, but I'm sure we'll find out.