Trump Targets Product Used by Ultra-Wealthy Americans in War With Carney
President Donald Trump demanded Monday that Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier stop selling airplanes in the United States unless it starts building them on American soil.
“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He argued that more than 50 percent of Bombardier’s revenue comes from the U.S., while Canada blocks companies such as Gulfstream Aerospace from doing business there. Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment, but was referred back to Trump’s post. Newsweek reached out to Bombardier via email for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
The threat comes one day before Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs take effect, the latest flare-up in a trade war that continues to open new fronts. Canada’s counter-tariffs on more than 700 American products, some as high as 50 percent, take effect Tuesday, matching the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian goods, from hockey sticks to tongue depressors, dollar for dollar.
Bombardier’s planes are popular among some of the country’s biggest names. Oprah Winfrey has flown a Bombardier Global Express XRS for years. Jay-Z owns a Bombardier Global 7500, while a Challenger 850 that Beyoncé gave him sits alongside it. Kylie Jenner’s pink-striped Global 7500, nicknamed “Kylie Air,” is one of the more photographed private jets in the country.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also flies a Global Express of his own.
What Trump Said About Bombardier
Trump made an almost identical threat in January, but it went nowhere. At the time, Trump said the U.S. was decertifying Bombardier Global Express business jets and threatened 50 percent import tariffs on all aircraft made in Canada until the country’s regulator certified several planes produced by U.S. rival Gulfstream.
“We are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada, until such time as Gulfstream, a Great American Company, is fully certified, as it should have been many years ago,” Trump posted late on January 29.
Neither the decertification nor the tariff happened. Canada certified several Gulfstream models, including the G500, G600, G700 and G800, the following month, quieting the dispute until Monday.
Now the threat is back, folded into a fight with Prime Minister Mark Carney that already covers hundreds of tariffed products, a collapsed trade deal, a renamed lake and Trump’s running comment about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Trump accused Ottawa of treating the U.S. market as a “piggybank.” “If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank,'” he wrote, before closing with a run of imperatives: buy American, fly American and, reviving an old jab, “sail on Lake America.”
Who Actually Buys Bombardier Jets
About half of Bombardier’s more than 5,100 aircraft are in service in the United States. The company also operates a defense business in Wichita, Kansas, where it modifies aircraft for military and special-mission uses.
While figures like Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Jay-Z and Kylie Jenner are known to own Bombardier jets, the company’s customers also include corporations, charter companies and fractional-ownership operators. Private jets can cost millions of dollars to purchase, with Bombardier’s largest Global models selling for tens of millions. The costs of ownership include maintenance, crew, insurance and other expenses, helping drive demand for charter and fractional-ownership models.
Individual jet ownership also extends beyond billionaires. Wealth intelligence firm Altrata defines ultra-high-net-worth individuals as people with at least $30 million in net worth. Its research found that corporate executives accounted for 62 of every 100 ultra-high-net-worth private-jet owners, compared with 25 entrepreneurs and seven sole inheritors.
Even wealthy buyers do not always own a plane outright. Bombardier competes with Gulfstream, Dassault and Embraer in the business-jet market, giving corporate flight departments, charter companies and other operators alternatives if they choose to buy from another manufacturer.
Newsweek reached out to Gulfstream and the U.S. Trade Representative for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Bombardier’s US Jobs and Revenue at Risk
Bombardier employs more than 18,800 people worldwide, including 3,100 in the U.S., with its American headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, housing a service center, a flight-test facility and its defense arm. Back in January, facing the same threat, the company put a finer point on it: more than 3,000 U.S. jobs across nine major facilities, plus thousands more supported through 2,800 American suppliers.
Back in January, after Trump’s first post, Bombardier said it had “taken note” of his remarks and was in touch with the Canadian government. “Thousands of private and civilian jets built in Canada fly in the U.S. every day. We hope this is quickly resolved to avoid a significant impact to air traffic and the flying public,” the company said.
The money at stake is real. Analysts peg Bombardier’s full-year 2026 revenue near $10.2 billion, and if Trump’s own figure, more than half of sales coming from the U.S., holds up, a market ban could put close to $5 billion of that at risk. Second-quarter revenue was already up 6 percent year-over-year, to $2.2 billion on 32 deliveries, with services revenue hitting a record $674 million.
Investors didn’t wait to see how it plays out. Bombardier shares fell between 5 and 9 percent within hours of the post.
The US-Canada Trade War, Explained
Trade talks between Washington and Ottawa collapsed on August 21, after three days of negotiations and just days after Trump had agreed to delay new tariffs to give the two sides more time to reach a deal. Canada suspended the talks after rejecting what Carney described as unacceptable last-minute U.S. demands. The Trump administration imposed 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods the next day.
The two governments have offered sharply different accounts of what happened at the negotiating table.
Carney said Canada had offered to remove its remaining tariffs on U.S. steel, aluminum and autos if Washington lowered its own tariffs. Canada also offered to encourage provinces to lift restrictions on the sale of U.S. alcohol. But Carney said Washington wanted additional concessions, including less tariff relief for Canadian-made vehicles, limits on Canada’s ability to negotiate trade agreements with other countries and changes affecting Canadian language and cultural protections. Canada rejected those terms.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer described the talks differently. He said Washington had offered to lower tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and autos and eliminate a recently imposed tariff on Canadian lumber. Canada rejected the offer, Greer said, leaving the administration to respond with additional tariffs.
The dispute is now moving beyond the negotiating table. Canada will impose new counter-tariffs of 15 percent, 25 percent and 50 percent on $27.6 billion worth of U.S. goods beginning Tuesday. The measures target products including steel and aluminum, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, plastics and electronics, with the rates matching the corresponding U.S. tariffs.
Canada has also announced a $7.5 billion package of new and expanded support for workers and businesses affected by the trade disruptions.
The disagreement has continued in public. Carney has said Washington’s approach has made it harder to reach an agreement and that Canada needs greater certainty about the tariffs it would face under any deal. U.S. officials have continued to defend the tariffs and dispute Canada’s account of the negotiations.
The stakes are unusually high because of the scale of the economic relationship. The U.S. and Canada trade hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services each year, with industries ranging from autos and metals to agriculture and energy tied closely across the border. Canada’s exports to the U.S. still accounted for about two-thirds of its total exports in July, even as trade with other countries has grown.
And the dispute is unfolding as Washington prepares for the broader review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The Trump administration has begun discussions with Mexico over changes to the agreement, while formal talks with Canada have yet to resume.
Who Is Most Affected by the Trade War
About 72 percent of Canada’s merchandise exports went to the U.S. in 2025, while only 15 percent of U.S. exports go the other way.
Stateside, the damage isn’t evenly spread. It concentrates in a handful of border states that also happen to be midterm battlegrounds: Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Iowa. Maine Senator Susan Collins, running for reelection in a competitive race, has already called the tariffs “a mistake.” Michigan Representative Lisa McClain sees it differently, defending the approach as a way to “level the playing field.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas