President Donald Trump reacts during a rally in support of Republican U.S. Senate reelection candidate Roger Marshall in Park City, Kan., on Oct. 19, 2026. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump has signalled he may be reversing his threat to ban Canadian aerospace company Bombardier’s aircraft from the U.S. market unless the company builds them in the United States.
Speaking to supporters at an Oct. 19 rally in Wichita, Kan., Trump said he had received a phone call from Republican Senator Roger Marshall and would subsequently be “helping a certain air company get themselves straightened away.”
“I’ll be helping them, because I always viewed them as a Canadian company—you know what I’m talking about—but now we find out they have a presence here,” Trump said. “And we’re not hurting them if they’re in Kansas. So we’ll take care of those people and the jobs.”
Bombardier shares rose in trading on Oct. 20, with the company’s Class B shares climbing above $320 after closing at $311.47 the previous day.
Trump’s remarks came after Bombardier announced a roughly US$50 million investment in Wichita and inaugurated its North American Learning Centre on Oct. 15. The company employs about 1,500 people at its Wichita facility and around 3,500 people across the United States, including in Tucson, Ariz., Dallas, Tex., Hartford, Conn., and Miami, Fla.
Trump had announced on Sept. 7 that he would ban the sale of Bombardier aircraft in the United States unless the Quebec-based company began building them there. In a Truth Social post, Trump said more than 50 percent of Bombardier’s revenue came from the United States, while accusing Canada of blocking U.S.-based Gulfstream Aerospace from doing business in the country.
“They even blocked Gulfstream Aerospace from doing business in Canada — Completely unjust and unfair! That Era is OVER! If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank,’” he wrote.
The threat came a day before Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods were set to take effect on Sept. 8. The Canadian measures covered about $27.6 billion worth of U.S. imports, in response to Washington imposing 50 percent tariffs on a comparable value of Canadian products beginning Aug. 22.
Bombardier told The Epoch Times in a statement that it has facilities and employees across the United States.
“Bombardier aircraft create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs through the company’s growing American footprint as well as within its supply chain made up of approximately 2,800 American companies across 47 states,” the company said.
Trump had previously threatened Bombardier in January, saying the United States would decertify the company’s Global Express and other Canadian-made aircraft and impose new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian aircraft until Canadian regulators certified several models manufactured by U.S.-based Gulfstream.
Transport Canada certified Gulfstream’s G500 and G600 aircraft in February, followed by the G700 and G800 later that month. Trump did not follow through on his threats against Bombardier.
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