NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump, a political newcomer who touts his corporate skills, turned businessman-in-chief Tuesday, first demanding the government cancel a multibillion-dollar order for new presidential planes and then hailing a Japanese company’s commitment to invest billions in the U.S.
“We will defend American jobs. We have to look at it almost like a war,” Trump said in North Carolina, vowing to keep companies from moving overseas during the second stop of his “thank you” tour to salute supporters. “We want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America.”
Trump was far less bombastic than during the tour’s kickoff in Ohio last week, striking more of the healing notes traditionally delivered by a president-to-be in the weeks after an election.
“We will heal our divisions and unify our country. When Americans are unified there is nothing we cannot do — nothing!” he told the crowd in Fayetteville, N.C. “I’m asking you to dream big again as Americans. I’m asking you to believe in yourselves.”
The Republican businessman largely stuck to the script Tuesday and avoided some of the score-settling and scorched-earth rhetoric that defined his campaign and was present again last week. He also repeated his vow to fortify the nation’s military and brought Marine Gen. James Mattis on stage, officially naming his choice to be Defense Secretary after teasing last week.
Earlier in the day, Trump plainly telegraphed that when he takes office in six weeks he’ll take an interventionist role in the nation’s economy — as well as play showman when he sees a chance. The celebrity businessman’s declaration about Air Force One caused manufacturer Boeing’s stock to drop temporarily and raised fresh questions about how his administration could affect the economy.
“The plane is totally out of control,” Trump told reporters at Trump Tower. “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.” Earlier he had tweeted that the deal’s costs were “out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!”
Not long after his first appearance, Trump returned with Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, a massive telecommunications company that counts Sprint among its holdings. Trump pointed proudly to Son’s commitment to invest $50 billion in the U.S., which Trump said could create 50,000 jobs.
Trump shook Son’s hand and posed for photos, reveling as he had last week when he toured a Carrier plant in Indiana where he said he had instigated an agreement that will preserve about 1,000 jobs the appliance maker had planned to move to Mexico. Details of the deal were scarce and it was unclear if the money was part of a fund of up to $100 billion in global technology investments that SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia announced in October.
As for Air Force One, the government has agreed that Boeing will build two new planes, which would go into service around 2024.
The Air Force has pressed for a faster schedule, saying the aging current Boeing 747s are becoming too expensive to repair and keep in good flying shape. The overall deal for researching, developing and building new planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising.
