Trump Backs Off Bombardier Threat in Kansas: "We're Not Hurting Them"

File photo: a Bombardier Global 7500 at the 2019 Paris Air Show (Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0) — not Bombardier's Wichita plant.

In the middle of a Kansas campaign rally on Monday night, Donald Trump did something he has rarely done during the months-long trade war with Canada: he publicly backed down. Not on tariffs. Not on the "51st state" jabs. But on one specific Canadian company — Montreal-based jet maker Bombardier.

The moment matters, because just six weeks ago Trump was threatening to bar Bombardier's private jets from the American market entirely. On Monday, in front of a crowd at the Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, Kansas, the threat was gone — replaced by a promise to help.

What Trump said in Kansas about Bombardier

Trump was in Kansas to campaign for Republican Senator Roger Marshall, who faces a closer-than-expected fight for re-election ahead of November's midterm vote. Mid-speech, the president turned to Bombardier, a company he had attacked in September but — notably — never mentioned by name that night.

"Because of Roger and his phone call to me, I'm going to be helping a certain air company get themselves straightened away," Trump said, according to Reuters. "I'll be helping them. Because I always viewed them as a Canadian company, you know what I'm talking about. But now I find out they have a presence here, and we're not hurting them if they're in Kansas. So we'll take care of those people, alright? And the jobs."

The White House and Bombardier did not immediately comment on the remarks. But the message was clear enough for investors: Bombardier shares climbed 2.1 per cent on Tuesday after Trump's comments, Reuters reported.

It was a sharp turn. Last month, Reuters noted it was never even clear how Trump could legally block Bombardier jets from U.S. buyers, since every one of them carries approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The threat was blunt; the legal path was murky. Now the rhetoric has softened too.

Why Bombardier is different from everything else on the tariff list

Here's the thing most people miss about the September trade measures: the Trump administration banned a broad swath of Canadian imports — alcoholic beverages, motorcycles, dairy products, all barred effective Sept. 29 — but took no action against Bombardier. The jet maker was threatened in words only, never in policy. Monday's rally explains why.

Bombardier employs roughly 1,500 people in Wichita and about 3,500 across the United States. Kansas is home to Bombardier Group's U.S. headquarters and its Bombardier Defense division, and last week the company announced another $50-million investment in its Wichita operations as part of its long-term growth plans there. It also plans a new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

That's the political arithmetic. Trump admitted as much: "I always viewed them as a Canadian company," he said, "but now I find out they have a presence here." Once Bombardier looked like Kansas jobs instead of a Canadian import, the calculation changed.

What the walk-back means for the stock and the trade war

Let's be honest about what Monday did and didn't do. It didn't settle the trade war. Canada's retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods took effect in early September, after Washington slapped tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods in August when several rounds of negotiations collapsed. That fight is still very much live.

And the same Kansas speech kept the combative tone on everything else: Trump repeated that Canada is "ripping off" the United States on trade and revived the "51st state" riff, joking that he'd let Canada keep hockey and the national anthem. The Bombardier exception is exactly that — an exception.

Still, for Bombardier investors, the exception is the story. Jefferies cut its Air Canada price target this same week over fare and fuel worries — a reminder of how quickly sentiment moves in this sector. A presidential promise to protect rather than punish is the kind of tailwind the stock has been waiting for. Whether the assurance becomes lasting policy, though, is the question nobody in Kansas answered on Monday night.

Editor's note: no embeddable video report on Trump's Bombardier remarks from a reputable Canadian or U.S. outlet was available at publication time, so no video accompanies this article.

Sources

• Reuters (David Shepardson and Allison Lampert), "Trump says in Kansas he does not plan to hurt Bombardier" (Oct 20, 2026) — reuters.com
• The Globe and Mail, "Trump walks back threat to ban Bombardier sales in U.S. during Kansas rally" (Oct 20, 2026) — biztoc.com (syndicated from theglobeandmail.com)
• Bloomberg Law, "Trump Hints at Pulling Back Threat of US Bombardier Boycott" (Oct 20, 2026) — news.bgov.com
• National Post, "Trump jokingly says Canada can keep hockey and O Canada in his latest '51st state' offer" (Oct 20, 2026) — europesays.com (mirrored from nationalpost.com)