Trump finally addresses nationwide air traffic fiasco by blaming Biden

And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy refused to apologize “for what was passed off to us.”

Play He was not ‘being truthful.’ Rep. Walkinshaw calls for Sean Duffy to answer questions under oath. November 15, 2026 / 08:53 By  Erum Salam Nov. 15, 2026, 12:50 PM EST President Donald Trump deflected blame Sunday for the weekend’s debilitating nationwide ground stop, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declined to apologize.

In his first public message about the air travel meltdown, Trump blamed his predecessor and praised the Federal Aviation Administration under his leadership. He did not directly address what happened, or offer consolation to the hundreds of thousands of passengers left stranded.

“The Biden Administration was an FAA disaster. Everything they touched turned bad,” Trump wrote on social media, asking for more money from Congress to modernize the air traffic control system.

“Our FAA is doing a great job, and is ready to go,” Trump added.

Duffy fanned out across network Sunday news shows to defend himself and praise the president. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the transportation secretary said he’s “moving at an incredible speed” to upgrade an antiquated system.

“I’m proud of the work we’re doing, the attention we’re bringing to this issue,” Duffy said. “But I can’t apologize for what was passed off to us, and I can’t blame Republicans or Democrats because it’s all of them.”

The FAA’s nationwide ground stop Friday paralyzed air travel across the country, cancelling and delaying thousands of flights, upending travel plans and piquing concerns about the security — or lack thereof — of the nation’s infrastructure. The coast-to-coast shutdown — the first of its kind since the Sept. 11 attacks — was lifted after more than four hours, but major disruptions persisted Sunday.

Democratic lawmakers vowed to hold the Trump administration accountable for its handling of the air space closure.

“With holiday travel around the corner, we must avoid chaos that leads to mass, unexpected travel delays,” Reps. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., ranking member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and André Carson, D-Ind., ranking member on the aviation subcommittee, said in a statement Saturday.

The Democrats pointed out that the GOP-controlled Congress already approved $12.5 billion for the Department of Transportation to make necessary upgrades. They said the administration had spent just $1 billion, leaving $11 billion unspent.“Explain to Congress, again, why they need more money?” Larsen and Carson said.

The committee is expected to be briefed by FAA and DOT staff on Monday.

Officials on Sunday still had not pinpointed a root cause of the problem, but Duffy said he believed the communications outage was caused by work at a remote FAA facility to replace old copper lines with fiber-optic cables.

Asked if the disruptions could be linked to a potential cyber attack, Duffy told reporters Saturday “we don’t believe so.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., a member of the House Oversight Committee, which has vowed to aggressively investigate the Trump administration when Democrats take control in January, said Sunday that Duffy needs to answer questions under oath before Congress. “Because I watched him in that press conference Friday night, and he was not being truthful with the American people,” he said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend.”

The congressman accused federal transportation officials of carelessly rushing upgrades. “Because the Trump administration wants it to be done before Donald Trump leaves office,” Walkinshaw said, questioning why the work was being conducted “on a busy travel day, as opposed to in the middle of the night where a disruption wouldn’t have been so damaging because they’re rushing.”

Democratic Sen.-elect Scott Colom of Mississippi was caught up in the chaos at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Saturday night. He said his Delta flight “has been continuously delayed because they can’t find another pilot.”“This is a hot mess for Americans. One of them just said, ‘pick another flight…pick another transportation secretary,’” he said, referencing his viral campaign ad poking fun at his opponent, outgoing Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, for telling constituents they could pick another protein than red meat amid the rising cost of food.

Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.

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