Copyright The Daily Beast
Sean Duffy and Pete Hegseth might think they’ve found a solution to the shutdown flight crisis, but the pair quickly faced derision for their approach. During the transportation secretary’s interview on CNN’s State of The Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday, the Trump official said the defense secretary had texted him with an offer to use military controllers at civilian airports. “The secretary of war texted me yesterday and said, ‘I might have some air traffic controllers. If you could use them, I’m gonna offer them to you,’” Duffy said. “I don’t know that I can, Jake, because they’re not certified in the airspaces that we need them,” Duffy told host Jake Tapper. “But if I can, I’m going to use them.” This ad hoc approach was not reassuring amid ongoing air travel chaos fueled by the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “Am I supposed to find comfort in the fact that the dude from MTV Road Rules and the Fox News weekend anchor are spotting each other air traffic controllers?” Jeremy Edwards, who served as an assistant White House Press Secretary during the Joe Biden presidency, posted Sunday of the MAGA Transport and Defense Secretaries respectively. The exchange between Tapper and Duffy follows after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to cut hundreds of flights Friday at 40 of the busiest airports across the country. Thousands more were cancelled Saturday and Sunday. “Two weeks before Thanksgiving, you’re going to see air travel reduced to a trickle,” Duffy forecast Sunday. “You’re gonna have people who wanna get home for the holidays, who wanna see their family, who wanna celebrate this great American holiday. Listen, many of them are not gonna be able to get on an airplane.” Edwards wasn’t alone in balking at Hegseth’s offer as clips of Duffy’s interview circulated online. “Sure, get some air traffic controllers from the guy who just inadvertently pummeled a patrol car with shrapnel on a California highway,” one user wrote, referring to a flub during a military event in the state last month attended by Hegseth. “Sounds like a plan.” “They’re offering air traffic controllers via text? Classic MAGA chaos,” another person chipped in. “We’re toast!” “A better idea would have been to appoint a Secretary of Transportation who has a clue of the subject matter instead of a TV host,” a third posted. “He has had months to recruit more air traffic controllers & stood idly by while DOGE cut 400 employees from FAA.” Mass flight cancellations, which Duffy warned Sunday are “only going to get worse” ahead of the holiday period, come as air traffic controllers continue to work without pay amid the government shutdown. More than 750,000 federal workers are presently furloughed due to the deadlock, which has already cost the U.S. economy an estimated $7 to $15 billion, equivalent to 0.1 to 0.2 percent of the country’s GDP, for each week the impasse has gone on so far. The MAGA administration has laid the blame squarely at Democrats’ feet. That strategy does not appear to be working, with latest polls showing 45 percent of voters blame the GOP compared to just 33 percent who blame their opponents across the aisle.
