Safety Shortcuts and Soaring Bills: The Race to Build Trump's New Air Force One

A New York Times investigation reveals that pressure to fast-track delivery of the president's new Boeing 747 has driven up costs and forced trade-offs on security features.

The Trump administration pushed to accelerate delivery of the new Air Force One well ahead of the original schedule.
The rush led to ballooning costs beyond the already eye-watering original contract price.
Safety and security features were reportedly scaled back or deferred to meet the accelerated timeline.
The investigation, published by The New York Times on July 25, 2026, raises questions about oversight of the high-profile program.
The two replacement Boeing 747-8 aircraft have been in development for years and were already delayed before the latest push.

It is the most famous aircraft in the world, and right now it is also one of the most expensive headaches in Washington. The two Boeing 747-8s designated as the next Air Force One have spent years sitting in a Texas hangar, a symbol of a government contract gone sideways. Now, according to a New York Times investigation published Saturday, the effort to get one of them airborne on a presidential timeline has come with a steep price — and not only in dollars.

The Times reported that pressure from the Trump administration to speed up delivery has pushed costs significantly higher than already-elevated projections, while security and safety features have been trimmed or pushed to a later phase to hit the accelerated schedule. The details of which specific systems were affected were not fully disclosed in the public version of the reporting, but the broad picture is one of a program running hot on urgency and short on patience for the engineering timeline that a one-of-a-kind flying command center typically demands.

The original contract, awarded to Boeing in 2018 and valued at roughly $3.9 billion for both aircraft, was already a renegotiated number after earlier cost estimates ran higher still. The planes — distinctive for their eventual red, white, and gold livery chosen under Trump’s personal direction, replacing the long-standing baby-blue-and-white design associated with every president since Kennedy — were projected for delivery in the 2024-to-2026 window before repeated delays pushed that date back.

The Times investigation lands at a moment when the program has fresh political visibility. Trump has made the new Air Force One a recurring talking point, referencing the paint scheme and the timeline in public remarks on multiple occasions. The gap between that public enthusiasm and the reported internal scramble over safety trade-offs is the central tension the piece explores.

Boeing has not publicly commented on the specifics of the Times report. The Air Force did not provide a detailed response before publication, according to the newspaper. The next scheduled milestone for the program has not been publicly confirmed.