Good morning, readers. Happy weekend. I hope all of you in New England are warm and cozy, bracing for another storm. 

Thursday evening, I climbed through a mountain of snow on 2nd Avenue to catch the F train (which is decidedly not a private jet, a fact that will become important in a minute). Somewhere between slushy platforms, our internal Skift chat lit up. President Trump had just posted this:

Now, things we like to know as journalists — what the story is about, why it's happening, what the repercussions are, and whether it will have any actual impact, among other things.

We knew none of this on Thursday evening. Of note, neither did anyone we reached out to.

Can the president do this? The FAA, run by a Trump appointee, is responsible for certifying aircraft. And under existing regulations, it can only revoke certifications for safety reasons, not economic disputes. It does not appear the FAA has the legal authority to decertify planes over a trade spat.

Does the decertification apply to just business and private jets? Or truly, "all Aircraft made in Canada," as the post indicates? A White House spokesperson told Skift Friday afternoon that the decertification would apply only to new aircraft, not those currently in operation. The tariffs and decertification could impact the sales of Airbus A220s, some of which are manufactured in Canada.

The ostensible trigger? Trump alleged that Canada has "wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream 500, 600, 700, and 800 Jets." Gulfstream, based in Savannah, Georgia, makes ultra-long-range private jets for the kind of people who are decidedly not climbing through snow to catch the F train.

You know what I want to know, though? Who is the Canadian in Trump's circle who has the Gulfstream? I suppose that's my glib way of asking: What is this really about – really?

Between everything that's going on with ICE in Minneapolis, the calls out of Europe to boycott the World Cup, replacing the Fed chair, and the latest Epstein file dump, a wonky spat about Canadian private jets wasn't what I was expecting to be writing about this week.

But here we are.

Does anyone have theories? Drop me a line at [email protected].

– Sarah Kopit, Editor-in-Chief

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Trump’s Canada Aircraft Decertification Applies Only to New Planes

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The Skift Podcast

This week on the Skift Travel Podcast, I’m joined by once again by Seth Borko to break down a set of travel industry flashpoints that all connect back to one thing: trust.

WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE