Washington: After a rocky start, Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg appears to have gained the ear of President Donald Trump.
The US plane maker was one of Trump’s first post-election corporate targets, and a tweet about soaring Air Force One costs briefly tanked the company’s shares in December. But the Twitter tirade also gave Muilenburg an opening to press the case of the largest US exporter — and the 1.5 million jobs at its jet-equipment suppliers — in meetings with Trump.
The CEO’s entreaties seem to have worked. Trump has emerged as a booster for Boeing’s F/A-18 fighter jets and voiced support to lawmakers for a key Boeing initiative: reopening the US Export-Import Bank for major deals. Trump will fly to Boeing’s South Carolina factory to attend an event Friday showcasing the newest 787 Dreamliner, where he’s expected to make an announcement about the federal export credit agency.
“The supply chain for Boeing doesn’t just run through the state of Washington,” said Howard Rubel, an analyst at Jefferies. The Ex-Im Bank is “a door opener.”
Supporting the lender would put Trump at odds with some fellow Republicans, who view the bank as providing corporate welfare.
Boeing Bank
Ex-Im has been dubbed the “Bank of Boeing” for the backing it has given to aircraft purchases by airlines unable to tap conventional credit markets. But it’s been blocked from providing loan guarantees of more than $10 million because it lacks a board member whose nomination has been stuck in a Senate committee since 2015.
Trump is committed to re-establishing a quorum on the bank’s board, US Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota, said after a Feb. 9 bipartisan lunch meeting between the president and lawmakers. That’s needed to allow the bank to lend more as it faces a backlog of as much as $30 billion in projects.
Senator Richard Shelby, an opponent of the bank, had blocked nominees to the board over the past two years as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. In January the Alabama Republican moved from the Banking to chair the Rules Committee, removing one hurdle for giving Ex-Im a quorum.
Boeing and General Electric Co. have argued that without the financing, they would face a competitive disadvantage against companies in Europe, Canada, Brazil, China and Russia, who don’t face similar restrictions.
