President Donald Trump began Monday morning on Twitter offering a lesson on Branding 101.
The test case: “If I were Boeing.”
Just weeks ago, as Boeing came under intense scrutiny for the safety of its 737 Max 8 planes, Trump asserted that, “Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT.”
But he took a different tune Monday when he said that if he were in charge of the American aviation giant – as opposed to, say, the executive branch – he would “FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name.”
“No product has suffered like this one,” Trump tweeted. “But again, what the hell do I know?”
Trump’s tweet stands in contrast with his earlier stance that the problem with air travel was that flying had just become “far too complex.”
“I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better.”
Boeing has come under intense scrutiny – from regulatory agencies and customers alike – since two 737 Max planes crashed within a five-month window, killing 346 people. But the special relationship between the 102-year-old company and the federal government made it all the more noteworthy for Trump to claim that “no product has suffered like this one.”
As The Post reported last month, Boeing and the U.S. government have historically relied upon one another, “together creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, outfitting the United States with top military aircraft and supplying planes worldwide to allow the growth of passenger air travel and to boost U.S. exports.”
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Rachel Siegel
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