Karl Rove Criticizes Trump's Boeing Comments
Karl Rove, GOP strategist and former top aide to President George W. Bush, criticized President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday for comments about a Boeing contract for a new Air Force One plane. Rove told Fox News that the often brash and impetuous Trump didn't think about, or understand, the far-reaching ramifications of everything said and how it can impact a company's stock.
Trump tweeted he would cancel the Air Force One deal and told a group of reporters that the defense manufacturer was working on a new aircraft with a contract worth $4 billion. "Well, the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion for [the] Air Force One program," Trump said to reporters Tuesday. "And I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money."
Boeing contradicted Trump's claims, saying in a statement it was "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."
Nonetheless Boeing stock fell sharply after the president-elect made his comments, and Rove said this likely hurt average Americans.
"That stock is held by millions of Americans, by pension funds, by university endowments, by charity endowments, by ordinary people who've invested in Boeing and he said something that was not accurate that had a negative impact on that stock," Rove said on "America’s Newsroom."
Trump has shown no signs of signing off of Twitter, where he is known to fire off late night, and early morning, rants.
"Well look, it's part of the world in which we live, so he's going to keep tweeting," Rove said. "But, and look, the impulse, we want to save the taxpayers money, that's admirable. But this was fire, ready, aim in my opinion. First of all, there's not a contract for $4 billion, there's a contract for $170 million," Rove said before going into further detail about the Boeing deal.
Trump posted his initial tweet about Boeing just after a story featuring the company's CEO was published. In the Chicago Tribune article, CEO Dennis Muilenburg expressed concerns about Trump's trade policies.
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