Eric W. 200% agree no announcement out of the white house would have been a reasonable course of action, and possibly a way to ratchet down the conflict just a little bit. I think it might have been worth trying. Suppose the current administration didn’t say anything about the change. At some point, the public is going to get a look at these new aircraft. Someone is going to notice the paint scheme changed. That’s going to be picked up on and (shudder) could even go viral. Now how is that going to play with the folks who have already shown themselves to be predisposed to, shall we say, develop vapor lock (gotta keep this connected back to aviation somehow) whenever anybody changes anything their own political hero did? Maybe some of those folks who’ve self identified here can tell us how they would react… but I don’t think anyone would accuse me of wild speculation (just mere speculation) in saying that their response would probably not be better than what we have seen. Since airing things in sunlight early is better than letting them fester in a dark damp place, even if the present administration didn’t say anything about it, somebody probably would need to. Congress - pick a relevant oversight committee - could. Boeing also could. But again, with the rampant, unencumbered by facts or logical inference opinioneering demonstrated here, that airing by a party not the one calling the shots would (and again I am speculating, so please folks who have self identified as the aggrieved paint schemers please tell us if I am wrong) result in some more vapor lock, probably not any better than what we have observed. Perhaps the current administration in this matter, in order to look after the best strategic and monetary interests of a relationship with a suppler crucial to national defense, felt the best way to deal with fallout from their decision was to take responsibility for it and go on record early about it. And if - according to the reasoning I have previously described - they picked up a few political points, well, why be surprised or expect anything less from a political animal. Such behavior is so common place amongst this class as far as I am concerned it is beneath notice, and actually as previously described, giving it notice only serves to perpetuate it. And just to give equal time, plenty of people also exhibited signs of vapor lock when Trump made changes to things his predecessor did… there’s plenty of opportunity for vapor lock no matter who the political hero is. The secret to eliminating vapor lock in this case isn’t turning on the fuel pump (or switching to an all electric aircraft lest you think I was going to go there). The secret to eliminating vapor lock is not making a politician a hero and not treating politics as a sport in which you take joy in the “wins” of your team and the “losses” of the other team. Because if you’re an American, we’re all on one team, and either we all win or we all lose. This kind of vapor lock only contributes to our losing.