Why Is American Airlines Suddenly Sucking Up To President Trump?

It seems that there’s a recent shift among American Airlines management, whereby the company is very publicly praising President Trump. Let me be clear, this post isn’t at all intended to be political, as you could replace Trump with Biden, for all I care.

The reason I’m writing about this is because I’m curious what the real motive is here. After all, airline executives tend to try to further their own interests, and I have to imagine there’s an angle here. The question is… what is it?!

American CEO Robert Isom praises Trump, and more

View from the Wing accurately points out how American management seems rather flattering toward President Trump in recent times. Let me again emphasize that this isn’t intended to be political. On the surface, it’s not unusual to see executives of publicly traded companies sucking up to whoever is in power, since it’s in their best interest. However:

• It seems like American executives have become more positively outspoken about Trump in recent months, compared to the first 12-16 months of his second term
• Say what you will about the merits of the war with Iran, but there’s no denying it has had a horrible impact on airlines in terms of their increased fuel bill, and there’s no sign of that coming to an end
• I’m not in any way suggesting American’s failures are Trump’s fault, but American’s financial situation has only worsened during the second Trump term, so it’s hard to argue that the airline is benefiting much from whatever is going on
• President Trump’s approval rating is at an all-time low, so it’s not like praising him is great for public optics

A few weeks ago, Isom was at the White House, and had the following to say:

“From a commercial aviation perspective, the eyes of the world have been on us, and we’ve certainly delivered. Records at American, but records for the industry, in terms of transportation, and it’s broad based, every aspect, and no doubt it’s a result of the economy and also the job market.

So as we get into the summer, I want to give a shout out to Secretary Duffy. You’ve absolutely chosen the best person possible. With these record levels of traffic, we’ve had to do some things different. And the investments that we’re making in infrastructure, the hiring that we’ve done, and especially this modernization work that we’re doing is leading to great results. Now, as we finish out the summer, we have a busy Labor Day weekend. We’re going to hit all kinds of records this weekend. The only thing I could ask a little bit of help with is, can you help me with the weather a little bit?”

Dude, you’re paying $7 billion extra for fuel, and the only thing you could ask for “a little bit of help with” is… weather?

Trump responded by saying “we like American,” and then continued by touting how everything he’s doing is something that has never happened before, and it’s just not being covered properly.

Heck, what really pushed me over the edge in terms of writing about this is that American just announced its new automatic seat feature in the app, and the screenshot the airline chose for showcasing this is… DJT?! Are we being trolled, or what is going on here?

I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but of the hundreds of airports the airline could’ve chosen for this, it selected DJT? Is that truly a coincidence, or what’s the logical explanation? Admittedly this is subtle — I doubt Trump is browsing American’s press releases — but still.

What’s American’s ulterior motive with Trump praise?

Airline executives sucking up to Trump is nothing new. United CEO Scott Kirby is obviously the clearest example of that. He has had nothing but good things to say about Trump and his policies, United contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund, and even contributed to Sean Duffy’s reality TV show.

Kirby is a super strategic guy, and he obviously had a motive with this, especially since Trump tends to be a guy who likes those who likes him, and hates those who don’t like him. At first we thought the goal was to get regulatory approval for a United takeover of JetBlue.

Then later it became clear the goal was even bigger, which was to have United take over either American or Delta, and form a “flag carrier” for the US. That was rejected by both airlines, and even with the extent to which Kirby has sucked up to Trump, that still strikes me as unlikely.

But what’s American’s motive here? I mean, I sort of respect how American management historically isn’t big into BS, and perhaps that largely just reflects a lack of strategy. But what changed that is suddenly causing American executives to sing the praises of Trump?

I guess one possible explanation is “oh, it’s just typical sucking up to the president.” I suppose that’s possible, but the timing is what doesn’t make sense to me. This seems like a new thing. So what are the other possible explanations?

For one, we know American is planning a wide body aircraft order, and it’s entirely possible the airline orders Airbus wide body jets. We know Trump has his “America first” agenda, and ordering foreign planes doesn’t really fit into that. At the same time, I struggle to see what leverage Trump would have over the airline. I mean, Delta is primarily taking delivery of new Airbus planes.

The other possible explanation would be something really big, as I see it. As I’ve said many times before, I think the single biggest strategic merger we could see in the United States would be between Alaska and American, given how complementary they are. That’s probably a topic for another post, but if you want something like that to get approval, you’d certainly need to be on the administration’s good side.

Bottom line

In recent times, American CEO Robert Isom has had some very nice things to say about and to Trump. Hell, even including “DJT” as the airport code in a random press release about an app feature is pretty noteworthy.

While it’s common for airline executives to cozy up to whatever administration is in power, we’ve seen more of it under Trump than under previous administrations. Admittedly that might just reflect the “relationship based” approach that Trump takes to conducting “business.” But I also can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a little more to all of this, as there has been a shift.

Is American plotting something that it thinks will either anger the administration or that requires regulatory approval, or what’s going on here?

What do you think American’s motive is for its increasing praise of Trump?