In its review of the Pentagon's 2020 budget request, a US House of Representatives panel drafted legislation that would effectively block US President Donald Trump from changing the paint scheme on Air Force One aircraft, as he had previously suggested.
In July last year, Trump told “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor that the new model of the presidential plane, painted blue and white since the Kennedy administration, may get a more patriotic makeover.
“Boeing gave us a good deal. And we were able to take that,” Trump said at the time. “But I said, ‘I wonder if we should use the same baby blue colors?' And we're not.”
“Red, white and blue,” he added. “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.”
However, under the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee's draft legislation, the aircraft's paint color must “comply with the criteria set forth in a report of the Boeing Company titled ‘Phase II Aircraft Livery and Paint Study Final Report' as submitted to the Federal Government in April 2017.” The contents of the report are unknown.
However, according to a congressional staffer who spoke to Defense One, “There were some rumors some time back about proposed changes to the paint job on Air Force One. This language would prevent expenditures on those sorts of changes without Congressional approval.”
In addition, the draft…
