Elon Musk has taken on a new role as the First Buddy: monitoring the progress on the long-awaited revamped Air Force One jets.
The new Air Force One planes, made by Boeing, are currently $2.7 billion over budget and three years behind schedule.
This delay made the head of the newly invented Department of Government Efficiency travel to Boeing’s military aircraft facility in December to inspect the planes himself.
A visit from the head of one of Boeing’s rival companies, Musk’s SpaceX, as well as likely trade wars, leads the company into uncertain territory during the second Trump administration.
In December, newly-installed Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg called Trump to discuss all of the problems with the Air Force One jets. One revamped jet was supposed to be completed in 2024. After a progress report from Boeing due in February, the Department of Defense will review if the plane is on track to hit the skies in 2027.
The pair also had a conversation about Trump’s trade and tariff policies. Boeing builds its aircrafts in the U.S. and exports them all over the world.
China, one of Boeing’s biggest customers, has not placed a large-scale order with the company since Trump started a trade war with the country in 2017.
Outside of political conflict, Boeing has been mired by scandal. After a panel blew out of a Boeing plane on an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024, the company’s stock price dropped for the entire year.
