In his latest whipping-up of the news cycle, President-elect Donald Trump made up a number — the true cost of the two new Air Force One planes is $1.6 billion — and declared that he was giving the aircraft back to Boeing:
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
So does the tweet have any significance beyond Tuesday’s dip in Boeing stock? I talk to BBC Radio Foyle about Trump’s unpredictable politics and what it means for America at home and abroad.
On Trump’s attempt to capitalize on a Washington Post story on Pentagon over-spending:
He practices dog-whistle politics. He immediately goes on Twitter and tweets what is top on his head, because the calculation is that it plays well with the “common man”. Donald Trump is going to “drain the swamp”, even though he is packing his Cabinet with millionaires and billionaires….
Trump is making these snap statements that have diplomatic consequences, that have economic consequences. That unpredictability does not bode well when he becomes President.
