Donald Trump wants to cancel government plans to build two new Air Force One jets. 
 
 The president-elect said in a tweet Tuesday that the new Boeing (BA) 747 jet that's being built to carry "future presidents" already costs more than $4 billion, and that he wants to cancel the order. 
 
 "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!" 
 
 Asked by reporters Tuesday morning about the tweet, Trump responded, "Well the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion for [the] Air Force One program," he said. "And I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." 
 
 Trump did not say why he believes the planes will cost "more than $4 billion." Boeing says it currently has an Air Force One contract worth $170 million. 
 
 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 
 
 A Boeing source familiar with the program told CNN that not even the company can estimate the cost of the program at this time, since "the Pentagon has not even decided all the bells and whistles it wants on the new Air Force One." 
 
 Without knowing all the security features it is hard to estimate the cost, the source added, and the Air Force isn't even sure whether it wants two or three of the planes. 
 
 "We are not sure where he is getting that number from," said the Boeing official. 
 
 "The statistics that have been cited [by Trump], shall we say, don't appear to reflect the nature of the financial arrangement between Boeing and the Department of Defense," said Obama White House spokesman Josh Earnest. 
 
 In an official statement, Boeing said that its current contract allows it "to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States." 
 
 The company was caught completely off guard by Trump's comments and contacted the president-elect's team soon after his tweet, a Boeing official told CNN. 
 
 Related: U.S. Presidents and Air Force One 
 
 So far the Air Force has budgeted $2.9 billion through 2021 for two new Air Force Ones. They'll replace the aging pair of blue, white and polished aluminum 747-200Bs currently serving the President. 
 
 The new planes aren't expected to be ready to fly until 2022. The Air Force has already spent about $93 million preparing to build the new jets, according to Defense Department budget documents. That $93 million is included in Boeing's current contract. Manufacturing has yet to begin. 
 
 "We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer," said Boeing's statement. 
 
 Trump's comment emphasizes that he's looking for ways to cut government costs where he can, according to his spokesman Jason Miller. 
 
 "The point that the President-elect was making here was that a $4 billion price tag is a very big number, the taxpayers want to make sure we're seeing absolute accountability and that the government is doing the best to drive costs down," he said. 
 
 But Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday that the planes need to be upgraded. 
 
 "This Air Force One that we're currently flying on is in great shape, thanks to the skilled professionalism of the men and women in the United States Air Force," Earnest said. "It is, however, an aircraft that is nearing the end of its projected life." 
 
 The two Air Force One jets currently in use were ordered by President Reagan -- the interiors were selected by Nancy Reagan -- and were delivered in 1990 during George H.W. Bush's administration. Both are getting increasingly expensive to fly and maintain. 
 
 The Air Force has yet to place a formal order for the new planes. It has chosen the latest version of Boeing's jumbo jet, the 747-8, as the platform for the new Air Force One planes. The list price for a basic 747-8 is about $378.5 million. 
 
 A team of engineers and aircraft machinists would then add state of the art communications, missile avoidance systems, inflight refueling, VIP interior and protections from the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. That takes years to do and adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost. 
 
 Boeing builds the 747 at its factories in Washington state, and it currently has a large back order for its commercial jets, especially the 787 Dreamliner. Airlines regularly cancel orders for planes, although it would be a loss of both prestige as well as billions in revenue should the Air Force drop plans to build a new version of Air Force One. 
 
 The current planes have 4,000 square feet of interior floor space. The 747-8 is a longer and more spacious version of the current version, and features four General Electric (GE) engines. Those expand its range by 1,000 miles thanks to considerably better fuel economy than the 1970s-era engines used on the current Air Force Ones. 
 
 Boeing's first presidential plane was used by Franklin Roosevelt back in 1943, and it has made every Air Force One since President John Kennedy. 
 
 Boeing is the nation's largest exporter. But it has recently been criticized by Trump for both its deal to sell commercial jets to Iran and its decision to open a factory in China to finish passenger cabins on planes purchased by Chinese airlines. 
 
 Recently retired Boeing CEO Jim McNerney was named just last week to an all-star team of corporate executives who will advise Trump on jobs and the economy. 
 
 Shares of Boeing were slightly lower after Trump's comment. 
 
 Trump held between $50,000 to $100,000 worth of Boeing stock, according to a financial disclosure from June of this year. But Trump spokesman Miller said Tuesday that he sold all his publicly-traded stock that same month. 
 
 In January of 2013, when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded by problems with its batteries, Trump tweeted that he had bought just bought stock in Boeing at depressed prices, calling it a "great company!" 
 
 -- CNN's Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this story ||||| FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's contract for a new Air Force One canceled. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The government should cancel its multibillion-dollar order for new Air Force One presidential planes, Donald Trump declared Tuesday, serving notice he's ready to jump in and start making decisions six weeks before his inauguration. 
 
 Costs for the two Boeing 747s are "totally out of control," Trump told reporters in the lobby of his New York skyscraper. 
 
 The government has contracted with Boeing to build two or more new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump wouldn't fly on the new planes, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe, unless he pursued and won a second term. But the Air Force has pressed for a faster schedule, saying the current planes are becoming too expensive to repair and keep in good flying shape. 
 
 The contract for the planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. Trump tweeted early Tuesday, "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!" 
 
 Later, he said the costs are ridiculous: "I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. 
 
 The price of Boeing stock dipped after his comments but not drastically. 
 
 Asked for comment about Trump's statements, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said, "We are going to have to get back to you after we figure out what's going on." 
 
 Trump now uses his own plane, a Boeing 757, but as president he would travel aboard the Air Force jet, which is equipped with special safety, defensive and communications equipment. 
 
 Later Tuesday, Trump is making the second stop of this "thank you" tour in North Carolina, less than a week after his bombastic return to rallies at an Ohio appearance that felt more like a raucous campaign stop than a traditional speech by a president-to-be. 
 
 At that Cincinnati stop, Trump disparaged the media as "dishonest," inspired loud "Build the wall" chants, took swipes at fellow Republicans and stunned his own aides with his surprise announcement from the stage that he was appointing retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. 
 
 Mattis' selection was being formally announced Tuesday, and Mattis will appear with Trump at the evening event in Fayetteville, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 
 
 Later this week there will be rallies in Iowa and Michigan as Trump barnstorms the country to salute his supporters who delivered the victories in the battleground states he needed to capture the White House. 
 
 The North Carolina rally comes a day after Trump chose retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, raising fresh concerns about the lack of experience some of Trump's Cabinet picks have with agencies they're now being chosen to lead. 
 
 Carson, who opposed Trump in the Republican primaries, has no background in government or running a large bureaucracy. 
 
 Pence defended Carson's selection, saying he was "absolutely qualified" for the post. 
 
 South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, has no foreign policy experience. Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Hollywood executive, is Trump's man to lead the Treasury Department but has never worked in government. And Mattis, a widely praised battlefield commander, spent decades in the Marines but now is tapped to run the nation's largest government agency, the Defense Department, with 740,000 civilian employees in addition to 1.3 million service personnel. 
 
 Democrats swiftly criticized Carson's qualifications for his job. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called him a "disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice." And New York Sen. Charles Schumer said he had "serious concerns about Dr. Carson's lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues. Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for housing secretary, to say the least." 
 
 Carson would oversee a budget of nearly $50 billion that provides rental assistance for more than 5 million households. Demand for that assistance is high in part because housing costs are rising faster than incomes. HUD also promotes home ownership with the Federal Housing Administration underwriting about 1 in 6 mortgages issued in the U.S. The agency is charged with enforcing federal fair housing laws, too. 
 
 In a statement, Trump said he was "thrilled to nominate" Carson, citing his "brilliant mind" and his passion "about strengthening communities and families within those communities." 
 
 Carson, who grew up poor, quickly endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid despite Trump noting what he called Carson's "pathological temper." Carson has been coy about joining the new administration, saying shortly after Trump's election victory that he wasn't certain he'd fit into a Cabinet-style role in a job like Health and Human Services secretary. 
 
 Trump's selections also highlight a frequent divide between the two major political parties in their strategies in filling out a Cabinet: In early 2009, Republicans criticized incoming President Barack Obama for not making enough selections with private-sector experience. 
 
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 Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire 
 
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 AP Writer Joseph Pisani contributed ||||| Boeing Co. Investors shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to cancel an order with the aerospace giant to build Air Force One planes, after comments by the company and the White House suggested the numbers Trump quoted didn’t add up. 
 
 Boeing’s stock BA, -0.24% inched up 8 cents, or less than 0.1%, but had been down as much as 1.4% earlier in the session. 
 
 Based on 647.9 million shares outstanding as of Sept. 30, according to the company’s third-quarter report, the stock’s gain Boeing’s market capitalization by $51.8 million, a lot better than the $1.39 billion that was lost at the stock’s intraday low of $150.02. 
 
 The stock had dropped in morning trade after Trump tweeted that an order for Boeing to build a new Air Force One should be canceled because costs had risen to over $4 billion, which would be well more than double earlier budget estimates. 
 
 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 
 
 He also told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower, where he works and lives, that the building of the plane was “totally out of control,” as costs were spiraling, according to ABC News. 
 
 “I think it’s ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number,” Trump said. “We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.” 
 
 Trump claims new Air Force One "out of control": "We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." https://t.co/pSI7kxR3uH pic.twitter.com/73qk508UA5 — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 6, 2016 
 
 But Boeing’s response to Trump’s comments suggested a very different number. 
 
 “We are currently under contract for $170 million to determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States,” Boeing said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer.” 
 
 The White House also questioned Trump’s numbers. 
 
 “I’d refer to my colleagues at the Department of Defense for the particulars of the procurement contract,” said press secretary Josh Earnest. “Some on the statistics that have been, uh, cited, shall we say, don’t appear to reflect the nature of the financial agreement between Boeing and the Department of Defense.” 
 
 Boeing had secured a contract in January to start work on the 747-8 jumbo jets that would replace the planes used as Air Force One beginning early next decade. Although the Pentagon didn’t disclose the expected cost of the two new planes at the time, earlier budget estimates put the cost at more than $1.6 billion. 
 
 Before Trump’s tweet, which was sent just before 9 a.m. Eastern, ahead of the stock market’s open, the stock had traded unchanged at $152.16. 
 
 FactSet 
 
 The stock slid to a premarket low of $149.75, down 1.6% from Monday’s close, before recovering slightly. Since the opening bell, the stock has traded within a range of $150.02 to $152.64. 
 
 Trump’s tweet and comments come after Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg made comments that could be interpreted as veiled criticism of Trump’s trade policies. In a speech to the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association on Friday, Muilenburg cautioned against “antiglobalization sentiments” propagated by candidates before the election, and against pulling back from trade agreements “that have set the rules for international commerce for decades.” 
 
 Don’t miss: Opinion: The ‘market,’ it turns out, doesn’t love Donald Trump’s policies. 
 
 See also: What President-elect Trump means for every U.S. industry. 
 
 Boeing’s stock has gained 5.3% so far in 2016, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.33% has climbed 10.5%. Shares of Boeing rival Airbus Group SE AIR, +1.74% have lost 4.2% this year. 
 
 Rob Schroeder contributed to this report. ||||| This post has been updated. 
 
 Shares of stock in aircraft manufacturer Boeing fell nearly $2 a share before markets opened on Tuesday. 
 
 The reason? A tweet from the president-elect. 
 
 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 
 
 Were Boeing to lose a $4 billion contract, that would certainly cause people to be skeptical of future earnings. But this, as seems always to be the case with Donald Trump tweets, is not the full story. 
 
 As our Christian Davenport reports, the contract with Boeing is currently $170 million. The government's plan to replace Air Force One actually involves two different planes which would serve future presidents for years to come. Boeing won the contract in 2015; the new planes are expected to be operational in about a decade. The $170 million isn't for manufacturing, after all. It's for Boeing's work "determin[ing] the capabilities" of the planes they will eventually produce. 
 
 It was natural to wonder, given the apparently unprompted nature of Trump's tweet, if part of his comment was meant to suggest he would prefer to use his existing aircraft for the job of the presidency. His campaign spent $6.7 million on his personal aircraft after he announced his candidacy, and he has called Air Force One "a step down" from his personal aircraft "in every way." (Not size, mind you.) Once Trump received a Secret Service detail, the agency paid $1.6 million for its agents to travel with him -- money that went to TAG Air, a company owned by Trump. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump documented the changes he made to his 757 jet in a 2011 video on his YouTube channel. (Donald Trump/YouTube) 
 
 Trump's current plane is also a Boeing. 
 
 The Air Force wouldn't let Trump keep using his plane as president, though, unless it were significantly upgraded. As CNN reported earlier this month, Trump's personal plane would need to be upgraded with critical functionality to serve as his official aircraft. That includes missile detection and avoidance systems, electromagnetic shielding, mid-air refueling mechanisms and confidential communications systems. The cost of those upgrades would be up to Trump. 
 
 As it turns out, though, the Trump tweet may not have been unprompted. CNN's Jake Tapper noted on Twitter that shortly before the tweet (which was posted at 8:52 a.m. Eastern) the Chicago Tribune posted an article quoting the company's CEO, Dennis Muilenberg. (The comments were made at a speech on Friday, not in an interview with the Tribune, as this article originally indicated.) 
 
 "Anyone who paid attention to the recent campaigns and the election results realizes that one of the overarching themes was apprehension about free and fair trade," Muilenberg said at the Illinois Manufacturing Association last week, as noted by Tribune columnist Robert Reed. Fair trade has helped Boeing, which prides itself on being America's largest manufacturing exporter. 
 
 "Last year, we delivered 495 737s from our factory in Renton, Wash., to customers around the world," Muilenberg continued, noting that a third of the planes were sent to China. "This phenomenon would have been unimaginable when I started at the company in 1985." 
 
 Those are pointed comments. It was Trump, of course, who robustly criticized free trade during the general election. And it is Trump who, this week, seemed to threaten a trade war with China. 
 
 Shortly after tweeting that Boeing's contract to build the next Air Force One should be canceled, Dec. 6, President-elect Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower he wants the company "to make a lot of money but not that much money." (The Washington Post) 
 
 That story has a dateline of 7:30 Central time -- 8:30 Eastern. Trump's tweet came out a few minutes later. 
 
 Update: On the "Today" show on Wednesday morning, Trump denied that he'd seen the Tribune story. 
 
 Trump says he didn't see the article in which Boeing's head criticized him before he sent a tweet saying he would cancel a contract. — Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) December 7, 2016 
 
 We don't know that Trump was responding to the Tribune story. We do know that the last time he tweeted an out-of-the-blue opinion, about flag-burning, it was immediately after a Fox News segment showing students burning flags. 
 
 We also know that Trump's tweet tanked Boeing's stock price, albeit only briefly. In 2013, Trump tweeted about having just bought stock in Boeing ("great company!"), but his spokesman said on Tuesday that the president-elect no longer holds stock in Boeing, or anything else, having sold it all in June. 
 
 The fluctuations in Boeing's stock price that may have stemmed from Trump's annoyance at a news article criticizing his policies in the lightest of terms, then, only affected other people. 
 
 Update: Some good news for shareholders: Boeing's stock ended the day up slightly.
– Donald Trump apparently thinks that the future presidential plane could tone it down a little. "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!" the president-elect tweeted Tuesday morning. Asked about the tweet later that morning in New York, Trump elaborated, "The plane is totally out of control. I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money but not that much money." Two Boeing 747-8 planes are planned to replace the two current Air Force planes used for presidential transportation, reportedly going into service between 2020 and 2024. The Air Force has previously said $1.65 billion is earmarked for the jets, though CNNMoney reports the USAF has allocated $2.9 billion for them and the AP puts the contract figure at $3 billion so far with "costs rising." Boeing got an initial $25.8 million contract from the Air Force in January. The Week reports that Boeing's stock "immediately dropped" upon news of Trump's tweet breaking, though that figure was modest. Boeing's only response so far, to the AP: "We are going to have to get back to you after we figure out what's going on."