{"id":16961,"date":"2021-01-20T05:30:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T05:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/20\/trump-didnt-influence-program-details-on-air-force-one-jedi-says-acquisition-head\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:01:17","slug":"trump-didnt-influence-program-details-on-air-force-one-jedi-says-acquisition-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/it-networks\/2021\/01\/20\/trump-didnt-influence-program-details-on-air-force-one-jedi-says-acquisition-head\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump didn\u2019t influence program details on Air Force One, JEDI, says acquisition head"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump did not ultimately change the course of either the Pentagon\u2019s Air Force One replacement or JEDI cloud computing programs, the Pentagon\u2019s outgoing acquisition chief said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellen Lord, who will exit office at noon<\/a> on Wednesday as the Trump administration comes to a close, told a group of reporters that despite reported pressures and public statements from the president, Trump\u2019s influence on defense acquisition programs was extremely small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Trump claimed that he had personally shaved a billion dollars in costs off the plane, something the White House later walked back<\/a> to merely \u201cmillions\u201d in savings. In the end, Trump\u2019s influence was largely cosmetic, Lord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe president had a lot of interest on a few programs. I don\u2019t think he influenced the programmatics,\u201d Lord said. \u201cWhat he was interested in was the presidential aircraft. I was in the Oval for a meeting on that. But he, frankly, was focused on performance and the look of the aircraft, the color scheme and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t