Donald Trump wants to cancel government plans to build two new Air Force One jets. 
 
 The president-elect said in a tweet Tuesday that the new Boeing (BA) 747 jet that's being built to carry "future presidents" already costs more than $4 billion, and that he wants to cancel the order. 
 
 "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!" 
 
 Asked by reporters Tuesday morning about the tweet, Trump responded, "Well the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion for [the] Air Force One program," he said. "And I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." 
 
 Trump did not say why he believes the planes will cost "more than $4 billion." Boeing says it currently has an Air Force One contract worth $170 million. 
 
 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! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 
 
 A Boeing source familiar with the program told CNN that not even the company can estimate the cost of the program at this time, since "the Pentagon has not even decided all the bells and whistles it wants on the new Air Force One." 
 
 Without knowing all the security features it is hard to estimate the cost, the source added, and the Air Force isn't even sure whether it wants two or three of the planes. 
 
 "We are not sure where he is getting that number from," said the Boeing official. 
 
 "The statistics that have been cited [by Trump], shall we say, don't appear to reflect the nature of the financial arrangement between Boeing and the Department of Defense," said Obama White House spokesman Josh Earnest. 
 
 In an official statement, Boeing said that its current contract allows it "to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serve the unique requirements of the President of the United States." 
 
 The company was caught completely off guard by Trump's comments and contacted the president-elect's team soon after his tweet, a Boeing official told CNN. 
 
 Related: U.S. Presidents and Air Force One 
 
 So far the Air Force has budgeted $2.9 billion through 2021 for two new Air Force Ones. They'll replace the aging pair of blue, white and polished aluminum 747-200Bs currently serving the President. 
 
 The new planes aren't expected to be ready to fly until 2022. The Air Force has already spent about $93 million preparing to build the new jets, according to Defense Department budget documents. That $93 million is included in Boeing's current contract. Manufacturing has yet to begin. 
 
 "We look forward to working with the U.S. Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer," said Boeing's statement. 
 
 Trump's comment emphasizes that he's looking for ways to cut government costs where he can, according to his spokesman Jason Miller. 
 
 "The point that the President-elect was making here was that a $4 billion price tag is a very big number, the taxpayers want to make sure we're seeing absolute accountability and that the government is doing the best to drive costs down," he said. 
 
 But Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday that the planes need to be upgraded. 
 
 "This Air Force One that we're currently flying on is in great shape, thanks to the skilled professionalism of the men and women in the United States Air Force," Earnest said. "It is, however, an aircraft that is nearing the end of its projected life." 
 
 The two Air Force One jets currently in use were ordered by President Reagan -- the interiors were selected by Nancy Reagan -- and were delivered in 1990 during George H.W. Bush's administration. Both are getting increasingly expensive to fly and maintain. 
 
 The Air Force has yet to place a formal order for the new planes. It has chosen the latest version of Boeing's jumbo jet, the 747-8, as the platform for the new Air Force One planes. The list price for a basic 747-8 is about $378.5 million. 
 
 A team of engineers and aircraft machinists would then add state of the art communications, missile avoidance systems, inflight refueling, VIP interior and protections from the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. That takes years to do and adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost. 
 
 Boeing builds the 747 at its factories in Washington state, and it currently has a large back order for its commercial jets, especially the 787 Dreamliner. Airlines regularly cancel orders for planes, although it would be a loss of both prestige as well as billions in revenue should the Air Force drop plans to build a new version of Air Force One. 
 
 The current planes have 4,000 square feet of interior floor space. The 747-8 is a longer and more spacious version of the current version, and features four General Electric (GE) engines. Those expand its range by 1,000 miles thanks to considerably better fuel economy than the 1970s-era engines used on the current Air Force Ones. 
 
 Boeing's first presidential plane was used by Franklin Roosevelt back in 1943, and it has made every Air Force One since President John Kennedy. 
 
 Boeing is the nation's largest exporter. But it has recently been criticized by Trump for both its deal to sell commercial jets to Iran and its decision to open a factory in China to finish passenger cabins on planes purchased by Chinese airlines. 
 
 Recently retired Boeing CEO Jim McNerney was named just last week to an all-star team of corporate executives who will advise Trump on jobs and the economy. 
 
 Shares of Boeing were slightly lower after Trump's comment. 
 
 Trump held between $50,000 to $100,000 worth of Boeing stock, according to a financial disclosure from June of this year. But Trump spokesman Miller said Tuesday that he sold all his publicly-traded stock that same month. 
 
 In January of 2013, when the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded by problems with its batteries, Trump tweeted that he had bought just bought stock in Boeing at depressed prices, calling it a "great company!" 
 
 -- CNN's Kevin Liptak and Jeff Zeleny contributed to this story ||||| FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2016 file photo, military personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama aboard, departs at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. President-elect Donald Trump wants the government's contract for a new Air Force One canceled. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The government should cancel its multibillion-dollar order for new Air Force One presidential planes, Donald Trump declared Tuesday, serving notice he's ready to jump in and start making decisions six weeks before his inauguration. 
 
 Costs for the two Boeing 747s are "totally out of control," Trump told reporters in the lobby of his New York skyscraper. 
 
 The government has contracted with Boeing to build two or more new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump wouldn't fly on the new planes, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe, unless he pursued and won a second term. But the Air Force has pressed for a faster schedule, saying the current planes are becoming too expensive to repair and keep in good flying shape. 
 
 The contract for the planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. Trump tweeted early Tuesday, "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!" 
 
 Later, he said the costs are ridiculous: "I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money. 
 
 The price of Boeing stock dipped after his comments but not drastically. 
 
 Asked for comment about Trump's statements, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said, "We are going to have to get back to you after we figure out what's going on." 
 
 Trump now uses his own plane, a Boeing 757, but as president he would travel aboard the Air Force jet, which is equipped with special safety, defensive and communications equipment. 
 
 Later Tuesday, Trump is making the second stop of this "thank you" tour in North Carolina, less than a week after his bombastic return to rallies at an Ohio appearance that felt more like a raucous campaign stop than a traditional speech by a president-to-be. 
 
 At that Cincinnati stop, Trump disparaged the media as "dishonest," inspired loud "Build the wall" chants, took swipes at fellow Republicans and stunned his own aides with his surprise announcement from the stage that he was appointing retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. 
 
 Mattis' selection was being formally announced Tuesday, and Mattis will appear with Trump at the evening event in Fayetteville, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." 
 
 Later this week there will be rallies in Iowa and Michigan as Trump barnstorms the country to salute his supporters who delivered the victories in the battleground states he needed to capture the White House. 
 
 The North Carolina rally comes a day after Trump chose retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, raising fresh concerns about the lack of experience some of Trump's Cabinet picks have with agencies they're now being chosen to lead. 
 
 Carson, who opposed Trump in the Republican primaries, has no background in government or running a large bureaucracy. 
 
 Pence defended Carson's selection, saying he was "absolutely qualified" for the post. 
 
 South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, has no foreign policy experience. Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Hollywood executive, is Trump's man to lead the Treasury Department but has never worked in government. And Mattis, a widely praised battlefield commander, spent decades in the Marines but now is tapped to run the nation's largest government agency, the Defense Department, with 740,000 civilian employees in addition to 1.3 million service personnel. 
 
 Democrats swiftly criticized Carson's qualifications for his job. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called him a "disconcerting and disturbingly unqualified choice." And New York Sen. Charles Schumer said he had "serious concerns about Dr. Carson's lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues. Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for housing secretary, to say the least." 
 
 Carson would oversee a budget of nearly $50 billion that provides rental assistance for more than 5 million households. Demand for that assistance is high in part because housing costs are rising faster than incomes. HUD also promotes home ownership with the Federal Housing Administration underwriting about 1 in 6 mortgages issued in the U.S. The agency is charged with enforcing federal fair housing laws, too. 
 
 In a statement, Trump said he was "thrilled to nominate" Carson, citing his "brilliant mind" and his passion "about strengthening communities and families within those communities." 
 
 Carson, who grew up poor, quickly endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid despite Trump noting what he called Carson's "pathological temper." Carson has been coy about joining the new administration, saying shortly after Trump's election victory that he wasn't certain he'd fit into a Cabinet-style role in a job like Health and Human Services secretary. 
 
 Trump's selections also highlight a frequent divide between the two major political parties in their strategies in filling out a Cabinet: In early 2009, Republicans criticized incoming President Barack Obama for not making enough selections with private-sector experience. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Reach Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire 
 
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 AP Writer Joseph Pisani contributed ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| A single tweet from President-elect Donald Trump had immediate real-world implications Tuesday morning, when shortly before the markets opened, Trump criticized Boeing for how expensive its new 747 Air Force One plane is: 
 
 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! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016 
 
 He expanded upon that tweet in New York on Tuesday morning, saying "the plane is totally out of control. It's going to be over $4 billion for Air Force One program," he said, per CNBC. "I think it's ridiculous, I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." 
 
 At the mere threat of Trump canceling his order on the latest model of the presidential jet, Boeing's stock plummeted. At Tuesday's opening bell, Boeing stocks were down 0.86 percent and had slid more than 1 percent in early trading. Though that may not sound all that steep, with a market cap at $93 billion, even a 1 percent decline is significant for Boeing. 
 
 Moreover, Politico reported, Trump's tweet seems to have misquoted the actual projected cost of the Boeing 747. Air Force One estimated it would cost $1.65 billion to build two new jets — about $825 million per aircraft. 
 
 When asked for comment by The Associated Press, Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher indicated the company still wasn't quite sure how to respond to the president-elect's tweet. "We are going to get back to you after we figure out what's going on," Blecher said. Becca Stanek
– Donald Trump apparently thinks that the future presidential plane could tone it down a little. "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!" the president-elect tweeted Tuesday morning. Asked about the tweet later that morning in New York, Trump elaborated, "The plane is totally out of control. I think it's ridiculous. I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money but not that much money." Two Boeing 747-8 planes are planned to replace the two current Air Force planes used for presidential transportation, reportedly going into service between 2020 and 2024. The Air Force has previously said $1.65 billion is earmarked for the jets, though CNNMoney reports the USAF has allocated $2.9 billion for them and the AP puts the contract figure at $3 billion so far with "costs rising." Boeing got an initial $25.8 million contract from the Air Force in January. The Week reports that Boeing's stock "immediately dropped" upon news of Trump's tweet breaking, though that figure was modest. Boeing's only response so far, to the AP: "We are going to have to get back to you after we figure out what's going on."