The MAX scandal was swept from the front pages. In the dark calculus of twenty-first-century corporate management, a global tragedy was also an opportunity, a chance to reset expectations for Boeing on Calhoun’s own terms. Boeing was no longer a corporate pariah whose mismanagement had contributed to a catastrophic loss of life; it was an endangered American manufacturer working to secure the livelihoods of tens of thousands of employees in the midst of a national emergency. “We can’t lose Boeing,” President Trump said.
