Every year, there are many more airplanes manufactured in the United States than the country's domestic airlines can use.
This is a rather straightforward fact, but it has some important ramifications for the Trump administration's trade policies, so bear with me for a moment. During 2025, for example, Boeing churned out 600 commercial airliners from its assembly facilities in Washington state and South Carolina. Many of those planes were sold to foreign airlines and exported.
