President-elect Trump sold off his stock portfolio in June, transition spokesman Jason Miller said amid questions over whether Trump held shares in the aerospace conglomerate he criticized earlier that morning.
Boeing, the object of Trump’s criticism on Tuesday, took a slight hit on the New York Stock Exchange before rebounding later in the afternoon. Trump’s transition team quickly faced questions about whether the president-elect maintained a financial interest in Boeing after he took to social media to call for the cancellation of a federal contract with the company to build the new Air Force One.
Miller, who spoke during a conference call with reporters, commented on Trump’s stock portfolio in response to a question about his financial position in Boeing. But a transition spokesman later confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Miller was referring to all stocks, but said it was unclear “if [Trump] owned any Boeing stock at the time.”
Trump’s nearly four-year-old announcement, via Twitter, of his decision to purchase shares in Boeing in early 2013 began circulating shortly after the dust-up over Boeing’s Air Force One contract on Tuesday.
.@Boeing stock went way down because of 787- so I just bought stock in @Boeing– great company!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 17, 2013
According to Trump’s financial disclosure form, the president-elect held between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of shares in Boeing in May.
The transition spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about why Trump sold his portfolio in June, soon before he became the GOP presidential nominee.
Trump appears to be accurate in his assessment of the $4 billion cost of the Boeing deal. The Government Accountability Office warned in a March report that the cost of the Air Force One program was already projected to exceed $3.2 billion, and NBC reported Tuesday that the price tag for the pair of presidential planes will be even higher than Trump’s estimate because the government still has to purchase the aircraft after the research and construction phases are complete.
Even so, the White House questioned Trump’s “statistics.” Press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday that Trump’s criticisms “don’t appear to reflect the nature of financial arrangement between Boeing and the Department of Defense.”
