There will be plenty of people to tell Trump he can’t do anything about Pentagon waste. There already are. On December 22, Politico published a piece premised on the notion that Trump planned to intervene in contracting “to score political points, reward his friends and punish his enemies.” Doing so, Politico reported would “driv[e] up prices for federal government purchasing overall.” The suggestion of contracting professionals interviewed by Politico was that contracting — “a technical, complex part of the government that is run by tens of thousands of career civil servants” — is better left the way it is.
The article did not really contemplate the possibility that Trump might actually want to impose controls on Pentagon spending to save taxpayers money.
When he met with Lockheed’s CEO, Trump also met with Dennis Muilenburg, head of Boeing, to discuss the cost of building two new 747s to serve as Air Force One. Trump famously stirred up the issue with a tweet claiming that the project’s “costs are out of control” and threatening to “cancel the order.” After the meeting, he said, “I think we’re looking to cut a tremendous amount of money off the program.”
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