Trump will paint the new Air Force One red, white and blue 'which is appropriate' as he abandons the classic livery designed by Jackie Kennedy almost 60 years ago
- Boeing is building a pair of 747 aircraft for use as the next Air Force One planes
- Trump doesn't like the robin's-egg blue exterior that Jackie Kennedy chose 55 years ago and wants something bolder
- Trump: 'It's gonna be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate'
- Trump also wants a bigger bed than the narrow fold-out sofa the plane has now
- The 757 he owns personally has a stateroom with a full bed
- Delivery of the new aircraft won't happen until at least January 2021 so Trump will have to win re-election to enjoy the upgrade
President Donald Trump is abandoning Jackie Kennedy's robin's-egg blue paint scheme for Air Force One and giving the iconic plane the classic American colors of red, white and blue as part of a series of upgrades to the presidential aircraft.
Boeing is building the next generation of the 747 used to fly presidents around the world and Trump is using the opportunity to paint the plane in the colors of the American flag.
'I said, 'I wonder if we should use the same baby blue colors?' And we're not,' he told CBS News.
'Red, white and blue,' he said. 'Air Force One is going to be incredible. It's gonna be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it's gonna be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate.'
Trump also wants a bigger bed than the narrow fold-out sofa the plane has now.
Jackie Kennedy picked the baby blue color when her husband, John Kennedy, was president
Trump told CBS News the new Air Force One is 'gonna be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate'
Donald Trump doesn't like the feminine blue color of Air Force One that dates to Jacqueline Kennedy's redesign in the 1960s
The president believes that something bolder – like, perhaps the colors of the American flag – would make a more masculine statement
The plane's presidential suit, located at the very front, features two sofas that pull out into sparse, narrow beds
Trump owns a Boeing 757 outfitted with a stateroom whose double bed can accommodate his large frame
Kennedy supervised the redesign 55 years ago, but Trump wants a less gauzy, 'more American' look for the next generation of planes
The iconic Boeing 747 U.S. presidents fly on – the U.S. Air Force has a spare too – is painted with a feminine blue chosen by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 55 years ago.
Trump derisively calls the hue a 'Jackie Kennedy color' and wanted something that 'looks more American,'Axios news website reported earlier this month.
Axios reported the Air Force might bristle at the color change. The current aircraft Trump flies on has been in service since 1990.
But the president will have to win re-election to appreciate the new look.
Converting a standard passenger jet into Air Force One takes time, and the current project isn't scheduled for completion until after the next Inauguration Day in January 2021.
Trump conceded more presidents than him may enjoy the new plane, which got a lot of use this past week as Trump traveled to and around Europe for the NATO summit, his visit to the UK, and his meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
'I hate to say this, it's gonna be a long time. It's a very complex project. But by the time it gets built, you're gonna have many presidents, hopefully, use it and enjoy it,' he told CBS.
The multibillion-dollar deal was the subject of an Oval Office meeting in February with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
A White House aide told DailyMail.com earlier this month that Trump has 'always wanted' to have a real bed on Air Force One for long-haul trips.
Trump and first lady Melania stepped off Air Force One as they arrived Thursday at London's Stansted Airport
'Trump Force One,' the president's personal plane that served as his campaign chariot, is decked out in dark blue and brick red
The presidential suite on Air Force One is inside the plane's nose-cone but has ample room for a redesign featuring a bigger sleeping surface
The Presidential Suite aboard the plane includes a pair of what could be described, at most, as twin-size beds, which fold out from leather sofas.
Trump Force One has a stateroom with a 'double' bed, pilot John Dunkin told DailyMail.com aboard the aircraft in 2015.
It's large enough for Trump's 6'4', broad-shouldered frame and dressed with more than just a blue blanket.
But it's the outside of the plane, not its furniture, that announces the arrival of the most powerful man in the free world. The idea of changing it has already generated friction with one presidential historian.
'Why would anyone want to discard an Air Force One design that evokes more than a half-century of American history?' Michael Beschloss asked Axios.
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'Every time you see that blue trim and the words 'UNITED STATES OF AMERICA' spelled out in that same typeface as an early version of the Declaration of Independence, it brings back JFK landing in Germany to speak at the Berlin Wall, Richard Nixon flying to China, Ronald Reagan stepping off the plane to see Gorbachev in Iceland and a thousand other scenes of Presidents in our past.'
'Anyone who doubts how strongly Americans feel about the way Air Force One looks should go to the Reagan Library in California and see how many people go there to look at the plane that Ronald Reagan flew on while he was President,' he said.
After Trump won the 2016 election and began receiving detailed presidential briefings, he publicly exploded with a claim that the 747s on order with Boeing would cost taxpayers $4.2 billion.
'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!' he boomed on Twitter.
Critics accused him of inflating or misunderstanding the price, but Air Force documents obtained by DailyMail.com at the time proved him right.
Trump complained after winning the 2016 election about the cost of the new Boeing order and later held a personal renegotiation with Boeing's CEO in the Oval Office
