Fleeing 'disarray' in Washington, Trump visits Boeing plant to pitch US jobs

In his first four tumultuous weeks on the job, President Donald Trump has seen massive protests over his "Muslim ban" executive order and its failure in the courts, his national security adviser was ousted, a cabinet nominee withdrew and there has been a tidal wave of damaging leaks.

Republican Senator John McCain, a known Trump critic, said in Germany that the president's administration was in "disarray". McCain told the Munich Security Conference on Friday that the resignation of security adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russia reflected deep problems in Washington.

A day after a grievance-filled news conference that raised questions about his temperament, the real-estate mogul got out of the capital, went back to basics and was back on script.

On Friday, Trump tried to put the tumult behind him, pitching himself as a champion of US jobs and industry during a visit to Boeing in South Carolina.

"I'm going to do everything I can to unleash the power of the American spirit and to put our great people back to work," Trump told a crowd of workers at the plant, with the presidential aircraft and a new Boeing jet behind him.

"This is our mantra: buy American, and hire American."

Trump repeated his campaign threat that any company that lays off American workers to move to another country will face a "substantial penalty" when trying to sell their products in the US.

Trump's visit to the Boeing plant in North Charleston was a victory of sorts for Boeing, which had faced pointed tweets from Trump over the price tag to build a new Air Force One presidential aircraft fleet.

'This is our mantra: buy American, and hire American'

Trump took a tour of the factory along with chief executive Dennis Muilenburg, and declared that the company had done "an incredible job".

While Trump praised Boeing during his visit, he also signalled he would keep up pressure on defence companies to cut better deals with the government.

After delivering his remarks, Trump told reporters that the price for the Air Force One fleet is still "too high, but we're negotiating".

He also said that Boeing's competitor, Lockheed Martin, would have to cut the price of its F-35 stealth jet or his administration would consider replacing some F-35 orders with Boeing's F/A-18 Hornet jets.

"We're going to save billions and billions of dollars," Trump said. "Most important, we are going to have a great product from both Boeing and Lockheed."

On Thursday, Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35 program for the Pentagon, said the cost of the jet may decline 16 percent to about $80m each in future purchases.

Trump and other US officials have criticized the Pentagon's most expensive program for delays and cost overruns, but the price per jet has steadily declined in recent years as production has ramped up.

At the South Carolina plant, Boeing is building the 787-10, the largest of three models of its high-tech, carbon-fibre composite Dreamliner. Production of the other 787s is split with Boeing's factory in Washington state.

Boeing rolled the first 787-10 out of the factory on Thursday. It is due to enter flight testing this year and reach customers in 2018.

Boeing has been pressing to get the 330-seat $306m plane into production because it is expected to be more profitable than the smaller versions. But the company has sold only 149 of the jets, against the 1,202 Dreamliners that have been ordered.

After his trip to Boeing, Trump plans to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the third time. A Washington Post report said that his stays at his Florida resort have cost the federal treasury about $10m.