While his excesses once sent gauges into a frenzy, the mercurial US president now appears to have largely lost his credibility, particularly with the "smart money" - or what is presumed to be it - meaning the major asset allocators across global financial markets.
His latest jab at Canada bears this out, stoking his particular ire since the country's new prime minister, Mark Carney - the former governor of the Bank of England - made it clear to Donald Trump that he had no intention of yielding to blackmail.
In retaliation, the occupant of the White House has therefore threatened to ban Bombardier aircraft from flying - to ‘decertify' them - and to impose 50% tariffs on all imports from the Great White North.
A problem Donald Trump may not have considered: the biggest losers from such a move would be the two US airlines Delta and American, which operate a large number of short-haul CRJs.
Investors nevertheless kept a cool head: after brief, minor market jitters, both stocks quickly returned to the levels they were at before the statement.
In fact, it is chiefly their latest disappointing results - especially at American - that have weighed on them in recent days. On this point, see Delta Airlines returns to its pre-pandemic results, but its shareholders are still left wanting, published three weeks ago in these columns.
Regarding Bombardier itself - which has seen a red-hot run in the market since the end of its major restructuring program, which saw it sell off most of its activities to refocus exclusively on business aviation - Trump's frontal attack has, for now, cost it only a 7% drop in its market capitalization.
That said, while the manufacturer's order book has hit a record, as has its operating profit, MarketScreener expresses strong reservations about current valuation multiples, in particular the multiple on distributable profit to shareholders - which now seems to be operating in the stratosphere, or at least on a level highly exposed to turbulence.
Finally, it is - normally - not within the remit of the US president to ‘decertify' an aerospace manufacturer or specific aircraft, but rather that of the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA. That leaves the question of tariffs, although experience shows that, for now, Trump always backs down as soon as the showdown gets tougher - the famous TACO, for ‘Trump Always Chickens Out'.
