Originally Posted by
West Coast
Boeing (and I presume Airbus) has long been known for offering substantial discounts from the sticker price, airline A pays more than airline B for the exact same aircraft regularly. It's a prestige thing for Boeing as much as anything, had Trump encouraged Airbus to enter the flying forehead into the competition in a serious manner, Boeing would have scrambled. Don't think for a minute he wouldn't have encouraged them to, if nothing else he's shown he not a slave to orthodoxy, and having the President on a Boeing is a prestige thing only.
No argument with what you said. But I think this was already taken into account. Boeing knows the tremendous marketing value of AF1 for what it is. The "exorbitant costs" of Air Force 1 is not the airplane itself, but the expense of the bells and whistles so well described by TacomaSailor. If Mr Trump wants a bare-bones price, he can whistle his own tune on a bare-bones airplane.