Key takeaways:
- Trump wrote that there should be “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES” and said the Canadian company must build in the U.S. to access the market.
- Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs on nearly $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, with Al Jazeera reporting they cover about 700 products.
- Bombardier said it has workers and facilities across the United States, while Sen. Jerry Moran said its Wichita presence supports more than 1,000 local employees.
President Donald Trump threatened Monday to bar Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier from selling planes in the United States unless it builds them there, escalating a trade fight with Canada and drawing swift concern from a Republican senator whose state hosts the company’s U.S. headquarters.
“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Their products aren’t good enough!”
Trump accused the company of depending heavily on the U.S. market while Canada, he said, restricts American businesses. “Over 50% of their revenue comes from the United States — They live off American Buyers, American Companies, American Airports, and American Service,” he wrote, according to Al Jazeera. He also said Canada had blocked “our GREAT American Banks, and Companies” and “Gulfstream Aerospace from doing business in Canada.”
“If they want our Market,” Trump added, “they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank.’”
The threat comes as U.S.-Canada trade tensions intensify. Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian products, and Canada has announced retaliatory tariffs on nearly $20 billion worth of U.S. goods. Al Jazeera reported the Canadian tariffs would cover about 700 U.S. goods and were set to take effect early Tuesday. NBC News also reported that Trump has signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.
Bombardier, in a statement reported by NBC News, defended its U.S. operations, calling itself “a strong contributor” to the American aerospace industry and saying it is responsible for “creating tens of thousands of jobs across the United States.”
The company said its American workers are based at sites in Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, Delaware, California, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey, with direct employment in more than 20 states. Bombardier also pointed to its U.S. supply chain and the use of American-made components in its aircraft.
“Significantly, the wings for the world’s fastest business jet are made by American workers at Bombardier’s facility in Red Oak, Texas while crucial flight control components are made in Bombardier’s Los Angeles, California area facility,” the company said. It added that it plans to expand defense activities and its service network and to open a new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, later this year.
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., responded hours after Trump’s post, noting that Bombardier’s U.S. headquarters are in Wichita and that the company is a major employer in Kansas.
“The presence of Bombardier in Wichita supports a local workforce of more than a thousand employees, who contribute their talent and expertise to our nation’s defense and aerospace capabilities,” Moran wrote on X.
Moran said he had contacted the Trump administration “to make certain the President is aware of the significant contributions of Bombardier to Kansas and the importance of its presence in Wichita to many Kansas workers at Bombardier and in the Bombardier supply chain.”
Al Jazeera reported that Trump had targeted Bombardier earlier in 2025, when the company’s shares fell after he threatened to decertify its large-cabin private jets and impose 50% import tariffs on new planes until Canada certified the latest aircraft made by U.S. rival Gulfstream.
A sales blockade could affect large private jet operators, including NetJets, one of Bombardier’s major customers. Al Jazeera reported that the Columbus, Ohio-based company agreed in December 2023 to buy 12 Challenger 3500 jets from Bombardier, with an option to purchase up to 232 more aircraft.
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