Trump discusses battles with Boeing and ‘SNL,’ relationships with Obama and Romney

President-elect Donald Trump called into NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday after being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and gave a surprisingly wide-ranging interview on his transition.

Among other things, Trump doubled down on his day-old battle with Boeing after calling on the U.S. government to cancel a deal with the aircraft manufacturer to develop of the next generation of Air Force One.

“I think the planes are too expensive,” Trump said. “That’s what I’m here for. We’re going to negotiate prices. The planes are too expensive, and we’re going to get the prices down. And if we don’t get the prices down, we’re not going to order them.”

“Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” the president-elect tweeted on Tuesday. “Cancel order!”

In a statement, Boeing said its current deal for Air Force One development is worth $170 million. An Air Force spokesman, Capt. Michael Hertzog, said the military was working with Boeing to control costs. And Reuters reported that U.S. budgeted costs for the program are $2.87 billion through 2012.

Shares of Boeing’s stock plummeting after Trump’s tweet, which came shortly after an article was published on the Chicago Tribune’s website quoted Boeing’s CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, being sharply critical of the president-elect’s trade policies.

In his interview with “Today,” Trump denied his attack on Boeing was retribution.

“This was only about planes because I didn’t see an article where he was critical of trade policy,” Trump said. “My trade policies are going to be terrific.”

Trump repeated his spokesman’s claim that he sold all of his stock holdings in June, five months before the presidential election.

“I felt that I was very much going to be winning,” Trump said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to be owning stocks when I’m making deals for this country.”

While Trump said he’s “never been a big person for the stock market,” he once boasted about buying stock in Boeing. (“Boeing stock went way down because of 787,” he tweeted in 2013. “So I just bought stock in @Boeing- great company!”)

On the search for his secretary of state, Trump said Mitt Romney is still in the running and the delay in naming one is not, as some have speculated, a way of punishing the former Massachusetts governor. Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012, was perhaps Trump’s fiercest GOP critic during the 2016 campaign.

“It’s not about revenge,” Trump said. “It’s about what’s good for the country. And I’m able to put this stuff behind us.”

Trump said he’s been consulting with President Obama on White House appointments.

“I really like him as a person,” Trump said of Obama. “I take his recommendations very seriously.”

Trump further addressed his compulsive use of social media, claiming he’s been more restrained on Twitter of late, despite his online feuds with everyone from the cast of “Hamilton” to “Saturday Night Live.”

“I think I am very restrained, and I talk about important things,” he said. “It’s a modern day form of communication. I get it out much more faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with dishonest reporters.”

Trump explained that his attacks against “SNL,” which he hosted last year, was because it’s “not a good show anymore.” Since the election, Trump has tweeted that the show is “unwatchable,” “not funny at all,” and part of the “media rigging election!”

“The way the show is going now and you look at the kind of work they’re doing, who knows how long that show is going to be on? It’s a terrible show,” Trump told “Today.”

Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Trump, in particular, has irked the president-elect.

“I like Alec,” Trump said. “But his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good.”

Trump called it “a great honor” to be chosen Time’s Person of the Year, but said the magazine’s decision to list him as the “President of the Divided States of America” on the cover was “snarky.”

“I’m not president yet, so I didn’t do anything to divide,” he said.