Alan Zendell, November 14, 2026
This week, the public learned first-hand how fragile our air safety system is. It’s very impressive that the airlines and the professionals at the Federal Aviation Administration had procedures in place that enabled more than eleven thousand flights to land safely, if not all where they intended to go, without the national Air Traffic Control system operating. It seems that the only casualty was part of the nose of one aircraft that was in a minor collision on the ground with another plane.
That speaks very highly of the forethought and training the FAA imposes on airlines and pilots. Despite the massive inconvenience to a million and a half travelers, what the FAA and the pilots flying those planes accomplished during the four-hour nationwide ground stop seemed miraculous.
That said, none of the credit for all that success belongs to the two people Trump sent out to explain the situation to the nation. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Director Markwayne Mullin spent most of their time praising President Trump’s leadership and contradicting themselves about whether it was a system failure, an equipment failure, or the possibility of a cyber attack. Two days later, we don’t know any more than we did when the ground stop occurred.
In addition to lauding Trump, for what I have no idea, Duffy spent his airtime laying blame on the Congress. He said the antiquated systems that date back to the 1980s desperately need to be updated. He had previously requested $30 billion for that project, but now says it will cost $50 billion without any explanation for the increase. Most of the time Duffy and Mullin spent on television sounded like a typical MAGA diversion. Whenever Trump or one of his surrogates is asked an uncomfortable question by reporters, their response is usually a diversion to a safer subject, especially if they can blame a problem on Joe Biden or Barack Obama.
The whole story may be a lot worse, however. When CNN’s Pamela Brown interviewed House Representative Marilyn Strickland (D, WA) yesterday, Strickland, who sits on the House Transportation Committee, said Congress had given Duffy $12 billion to address ATC modernization in the One Big Beautiful Bill of 2025. To date, however, less than $2 billion of that has been spent on fixing the system. Where, she asked, did the other $10 billion plus go, and she demanded a full accounting by Secretary Duffy.
After praising the FAA work and file professionals and the pilots, Strickland noted that Secretary Mullin had broad authority to repurpose the $12 billion, though it’s not clear why Mullin and DHS can take money that Congress earmarked for the Department of Transportation. She repeated what a previous interviewee had revealed, that Mullin may have redirected the $10 billion in question to ICE. Nothing is clear, which prompted Strickland to say, “If you’re going to ask for more money, tell us what you’ve done with the money you’ve already been appropriated.”
That’s a good question. On one hand, Duffy claimed several administrations over the last few decades have been fully aware of the vulnerabilities of our air safety systems, implying that previous presidents failed in their responsibilities, while President Trump is providing real leadership to fix the problem. By diverting the funding to ICE?
If that’s true it suggests both a dereliction of duty by the White House and Russell Vought’s Office of Management and Budget and a clear preference by Trump to harass immigrants and people of color over protecting the flying public. Given the other scandal that broke this week over Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, that wouldn’t be surprising.
Amid the controversy and contradictions (lies?) about when Trump learned that his friend Huang had been having an affair with a woman believed to be a Chinese spy are indications that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick used loopholes in federal laws restricting access to Nvidia’s chip by China and several other countries competing with the United States for A. I. dominance, to allow the highly specialized chips to be sent to China. Lutnick’s business profitted from that.
All this clearly occurred within the view of President Trump, who has turned a blind eye to the unprecedented corruption in his Cabinet. If all these things turn out to be true, it amounts to far more than dereliction of duty. The Huang issue smells very much like treason motivated by the greed that has been Trump 2.0s hallmark, and Trump’s need to be liked by people he considers strongmen.
It looks like Attorney General Todd Blanche, who threatened Democrats who investigate the Trump administration with criminal prosecution, is reflecting panic among Trump’s inner circle. When you add the issues above to the Epstein Files, the mess of the Iran War and Trump’s shifting our alliances away from Europe and Ukraine to Putin’s Russia, Trump ought to be panicked.
Democrats have been arguing about whether to impeach and convict Trump when they take control of Congress in January, but that’s the wrong question. I would ask why J. D. Vance and Trump’s Cabinet don’t use the Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove Trump from office, since he demonstrates every day that he is unfit to continue to serve as President.
