While Other Companies Ride The Trump Tide, Boeing Scales Back

President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t taken office just yet, but he has already taken credit for thousands of jobs created by Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV FCAU and other American companies. Many of these jobs were pre-planned well before Trump’s victory, but companies wishing to get on Trump’s good side seem happy to let him take the credit.

Boeing Co BA, on the other hand, hasn’t been on Trump’s good side. The company’s plan to continue downsizing as the Trump era begins likely won’t get them there.

Trump And Boeing

Trump’s Boeing beef started back in December when he slammed the company on Twitter for the costs associated with the new Air Force One 747 fleet.

“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 tweeted.

Trump has promised to bring a new era of prosperity to the U.S. economy by creating thousands of new jobs. President Barack Obama is leaving office with the unemployment rate already at its lowest point since 2007.

Unfortunately, Boeing isn’t playing along. Boeing cut nearly 11,000 jobs in 2016 and plans on further cuts in 2017 as well.

Trump, Boeing and China

“Obviously anything that caused any kind of trade ruckus, particularly with China, that would be very bad news,” Teal Group analyst Richard Aboulafia recently explained.

Trump has repeatedly bashed China, one of Boeing’s largest customers, for weakness in its currency. If Trump continues his aggressive behavior towards China and/or chooses to officially declare the country a currency manipulator, China has already specifically threatened to retaliate against companies like Boeing.

A story in the Chinese newspaper The Global Times, which is backed by the Communist party, claims that “a batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus” if Trump starts a trade war with China.

Plenty of American companies are poised to thrive under Trump’s proposed policies of corporate deregulation and lower taxes. Unfortunately, Boeing certainly doesn’t seem to be one of those companies.