From her distillery on the banks of Vermont’s Mad River, Mimi Buttenheim is frightened a few very completely different stream of insanity—one that does not pour down from the picturesque Inexperienced Mountains, however straight out of the White Home.
“This is not a coverage. That is only a kind of shoot-from-the-hip type of intestine response. There is no technique right here in any respect,” she says of President Donald Trump’s commerce battle, which is threatening to lift costs (resulting from tariffs) on vital inputs and switch away most of the Canadian vacationers that she counts on as clients.
“I do not see any long-term aim besides chaos,” Buttenheim informed Motive. “It is simply chaos, and we’re making an attempt to—as enterprise homeowners—we’re making an attempt to react to it on a day-to-day foundation.”
Buttenheim is the president of Mad River Distillers, which opened in a transformed horse farm in Warren, Vermont, in 2013 and has grown to be one of many bigger craft distilleries within the state. Between the principle distillery and a brand new tasting room in Burlington, about an hour north, Mad River employs 14 individuals and churns out 8,000 instances of whiskey, brandy, and different spirits annually.
However even a small, craft operation like Mad River is a part of the worldwide system of commerce that Trump is decided to upend. Buttenheim tells Motive that Mad River sources its whiskey bottles from Europe through an importer in Montreal. Different important packaging merchandise, like cardboard containers, additionally cross the border from Canada. These suppliers at the moment are telling her that value will increase are coming, despite the fact that nobody appears to be certain precisely what tariffs might be charged—because the Trump administration’s commerce insurance policies are always shifting.
“I feel the uncertainty is the toughest half as a result of it makes it very tough to plan,” she says.
That may be an understatement. The Trump administration has introduced new or revised tariff insurance policies greater than 50 instances since taking workplace in January, in keeping with a tally by The Washington Put up. Not all of these modifications have an effect on each enterprise or business, in fact, however the White Home’s fickle and unilateral management over commerce is fracturing provide chains and inflicting complications.
For Buttenheim, these complications aren’t nearly provide. She’s additionally frightened about lowered demand for Mad River’s merchandise, notably if tourism from Canada dries up as a consequence of the Trump administration’s insurance policies—not the tariffs a lot as new immigration enforcement and the threats to annex America’s northerly neighbor.
“In northern Vermont, we usually see quite a lot of vacationers from Canada—from Quebec and Ontario—over the summer time and the autumn, and I simply do not suppose they’re coming this yr,” Buttenheim informed Motive.
Greater than 750,000 Canadians visited Vermont final yr, however the variety of border crossings has been sharply down in 2025, in keeping with the Burlington Free Press.
The commerce battle additionally means fewer bottles of whiskey crossing the border. Whereas Mad River doesn’t export its merchandise to Canada, Buttenheim says different distillers in Vermont count on to see gross sales drop now that Canada has slapped a 25 p.c tariff on American whiskey and some Canadian liquor shops have eliminated American merchandise from their cabinets.
“The issue is that even when they determined to show the pipeline again on, that is market share that these manufacturers have misplaced by not being on the shelf,” says Buttenheim, who additionally serves as president of the Distilled Spirits Council of Vermont, a commerce affiliation. “Customers are fickle. And when shoppers do not see a model for a sure period of time, it kind of fades to the again of their thoughts. That’s market share that is actually, actually tough to get again.”
Like different small companies harmed by Trump’s commerce battle, Mad River appears to be getting hit on either side of the ledger—and with prices which might be each seen and unseen. Increased costs created by tariffs are the meant consequence of Trump’s commerce insurance policies, and the White Home believes (regardless of what economists say) that these greater prices will encourage extra funding in American companies. The unintended penalties embrace the lack of clients, market entry, and future progress. The identical dynamic is hitting distillers of all sizes, threatening to devastate the nation’s burgeoning craft whiskey business.
What would Buttenheim inform Trump if she had an opportunity? Two issues, she says.
“Why are we punishing our next-door neighbors who’re our largest ally?” she says. Her suppliers in Quebec may be on the opposite facet of the border, however they’re loads nearer than different suppliers that she may be capable of discover in the USA. So why not let the market discover essentially the most environment friendly means to offer the bottles and gear she wants?
Secondly, she says everybody simply desires some stability.
“We will not run our companies reactively,” she says. “Now we have to be proactive, and there is not any means to do this when issues change day-to-day.”
