President Trump has had one of his rants on his Truth Social network, saying that he is “decertifying” all aircraft built in Canada.  The US President said it was in retaliation for Canada not yet certifying four Gulfstream aircraft types.

It is unclear how many, if any, of these models have been ordered by Canadian buyers, particularly given that there are just 14 Gulfstream 450, 550, 650 and 650ERs on the Canadian register, compared to 120 Challengers and 46 Globals.  [These figures from market analysts Parapex Media exclude aircraft in flight test or completion.]

Clearly Canadian customers have a preference for Canadian-built aircraft in the same way that the US President has a preference for US-built aircraft.  His powers do not stretch to meddling with another country’s laws and regulations.

Parapex Media have separately analysed the Canadian-built helicopter fleet.  Every Bell 407, 427, 429 and 505 has been built in Canada, along with many 206, 206L, 212 and 412 – a total of 6,266 helicopters to date.  Of these, 2040 are currently on the FAA register with valid N# numbers.  Trump’s post says “we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses, and all Aircraft made in Canada”, which would ground these 2040 Bell helicopters.

The process of “decertification” is also unclear.  There have been incidences of aircraft types losing their certification by virtue of the OEM handing back the Type Certificate, such as the Westland 30 helicopter and the supersonic airliner Concorde.

The options for a certification authority to cause a type to lose its certification are more of a grey area, and likely to be enshrined within legal jargon of the authority concerned – and FAA could be different to EASA, to UK CAA, etc etc.  One potential example could arise when the authority could show the Type Certificate holder was not maintaining a system for managing design changes and reporting safety issues, then the Type Certificate could be revoked

Let’s all hope that TACO happens.  This acronym was allegedly devised by Wall Street traders in May 2025 after regularly seeing Trump threaten something and then later rescind the threat after seeing the turmoil it created – with the potential that such turmoil was indeed the intention in the first place.  It means “Trump Always Chickens Out”