On Tuesday morning, President-elect Donald Trump Tweeted that Boeing’s effort to construct a new Air Force one for future presidents was too expensive:

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

Later in the day, he added, “we want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.”

The implications of this Tweet were heavily debated throughout Tuesday. Some, like The Washington Free Beacon — disclosure: this reporter is a contributor to The Free Beacon — suggested  that he agreed with the president, who has said, “I do think, at a certain point, you’ve made enough money.”

Don't make too much 💰💰💰 https://t.co/tzuaMvU7qO

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) December 6, 2016

On the surface, the Beacon is looking at similar comments: two wealthy men who are or will be president of the United States, neither a proponent of the free market, criticizing those who desire to make lots of money.

However, a deeper look indicates that Trump was looking out for the taxpayers, while Obama was expressing a personal opinion about income.

Why Target Boeing?

One of the nation’s largest defense contractors, Boeing receives billions in military contracts. Contrary to Trump’s Tweet, the company says that the Air Force One project is budgeted for $2.1 billion through 2021, though the Secretary of the Air Force said that the Air Force One construction will take about a decade. Reuters reports that the cost of two planes plus related research and development makes an accurate estimate difficult.

Trump might be wrong about the exact dollar amount for the contracts, and whether they are over-budget is something we won’t know for sure until the projects are completed a decade from now. However, Americans should not automatically consider Boeing a victim.

They are a major of a Department of Defense contracting system that is woefully inefficient, and they profit from the taxpayer-backed Export-Import Bank. This allows the company to take risks while putting average Americans at risk if the bank lost money. Additionally, it was heavily criticized for taking advantage of the Obama administration’s Iran deal to sell billions in planes to Iran.

Obama Versus Trump

On the surface, Trump’s comments express a similar opinion about income as Obama. However, as the folks at The Right Scoop pointed out, context creates a lot of space between Obama and Trump. The President-elect appears to be talking about Boeing costing taxpayers too much money. Obama was expressing a personal opinion that income should be halted at a certain point in general.

But even The Right Scoop didn’t entirely get it right. Here is more of what Obama said in the relevant speech, which was made about financial reform in 2010. “I want to be clear, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned.”

I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money. [Laughter.] But part of the American way is you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you’re providing a good service. We don’t want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy.

In other words, the president was expressing a personal desire about income, even as he said he doesn’t “begrudge success that’s fairly earned.” While he clearly does “begrudge success that is fairly earned” — as seen in his efforts to tax those who are honestly wealthy while simultaneously helping cronies become wealthier through the government bureaucracy — the statement he made does not make him “a socialist moron,” to quote The Right Scoop.

Trump’s Tweet a Good Sign of Times to Come?

At the risk of falling into the trap of assuming a Trump policy based upon a single Tweet and a brief statement, both made before he enters office, I hope that the president-elect will do what no president has been able to do: Reform our bloated and inefficient contracting system.

Holding Boeing and other contractors accountable to the taxpayers is very different than the tax bribes Trump negotiated with Carrier to keep some jobs inside the United States. The latter violates basic free market principles, much like Trump’s proposed protectionist policies.

Taking on Boeing is simply good policy and good politics — Trump’s Tweet came less than 12 hours after The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon hid a report whose authors recommended $25 billion in annual administrative savings for the nation’s military.

Update: CNBC noted that Trump’s Tweet came 22 minutes after the publication of a Chicago Tribune article in which Boeing’s CEO was critical of President-elect Trump’s trade policies. Given Trump’s pattern of  quickly responding to critics via Twitter, this could very well be a revenge Tweet from the President-elect — and, therefore, a concerning harbinger of presidential bullying once Trump takes office.