Donald Trump Boeing 737 Rebrand Advice Tweet

Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

Trump offers advice to Boeing: ‘fix’ and ‘rebrand’ planes after fatal crashes

The suggestion caught the attention of people online.

 

Andrew Wyrich

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 15, 2019   Updated on May 20, 2021, 2:50 pm CDT

President Donald Trump offered advice to Boeing on Monday morning, telling the company to “fix” and “rebrand” the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes after two deadly crashes in recent months.

“What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name. No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?” the president tweeted.

Trump’s “fix” likely refers to the anti-stalling software on the Boeing 737 Max 8 planes that investigators reportedly believe did not work after an Ethiopian Airlines crash in March. That crash drew connections to a separate Lion Air crash in October last year.

All Boeing 737 Max planes have been grounded since the crash in March.

Around the same time of the crash, the president also weighed in, calling airplanes “too complex to fly.”

“Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products. Always seeking to go one unnecessary step further, when often old and simpler is far better. Split second decisions are….,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets at the time. “….needed, and the complexity creates danger. All of this for great cost yet very little gain. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Albert Einstein to be my pilot. I want great flying professionals that are allowed to easily and quickly take control of a plane!”

However, the president’s “rebrand” plan was met with mockery online.

Trump’s own attempt to build a branded airline, Trump Shuttle, ran out of money in 1990, just two years after he began the endeavor.

The Trump administration was also initially criticized for its refusal to ground the Boeing plane, even as other nations responded swiftly to the two crashes.

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*First Published: Apr 15, 2019, 9:01 am CDT