Elon Musk is working with Boeing on speeding up the replacement of Air Force One.
"We've been engaged with Elon," Boeing's new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, told CNBC's Squawk On The Street.
President Trump signed a contract with the company during his first term to replace the president's planes, but Boeing is years behind schedule and $2 billion past its budget, CNBC reported.
The two Boeing 747s were supposed to be completed in 2024, but it's unclear if they will be ready before Trump's second term in office is over.
During his first term, Trump struck a $3.9 billion fixed-price agreement to replace the president's fleet, leaving Boeing on the hook for any extra costs. Trump had threatened to cancel Boeing's contract, accusing the company of ripping off taxpayers with its original deal.
“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” Trump wrote in December 2016. “Cancel order!”
Now that Trump is back in office, the president is anxious to see his deal carried out.
Trump's close adviser Elon Musk, who owns spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX, is working with Boeing on ways to speed things up. Musk is leading President Trump's initiative on eliminating waste in the federal government, the Department of Government Efficiency.
"The president wants those planes sooner so we're working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs," Ortberg said.
“They sincerely are looking at things in the contract or in the process that are slowing us down that are not providing value,” he said.
Boeing reported heavy losses last year as a major worker's strike brought manufacturing to a halt. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
The company has been plagued by production problems and safety concerns with its planes. A pair of 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed hundreds of people, and an in-flight door blowout on a 737 MAX last year brought the company under closer scrutiny.
President Trump's fondness for Air Force One is well-known, and he has expressed excitement about putting his personal stamp on the iconic plane, which hasn't been replaced in decades.
The president has long said he wants to update the baby blue color scheme, in use since the Kennedy years.
“We want power blue, not baby blue,” Trump told journalists abord Air Force One recently. “Everything has its time and place. We’ll be changing the colors.”
