Trump’s Transportation Sec Warns More Airport Outages Are Coming

Rolling blackouts at Newark International Airport have continued to erode confidence in America’s airports, and while the Trump administration is promising that New Jersey’s flight problems will soon be a thing of the past, the problems are just beginning for the rest of the nation.

In an interview with MSNBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had only more warnings for the future of America’s commercial aviation industry.

“The lights are blinking, the sirens are turning.… What you see in Newark is gonna happen in other places across the country,” Duffy said, pointing to telecom and software issues at air traffic towers across the country. “It has to be fixed.”

He noted that, at least at Newark, “we believe we can have it up and running in short order.”

“We’re going to be able to fix that glitch, and we feel a little more comfortable about our primary line that gets the data in on radar,” Duffy said.

Duffy also mentioned that America’s airports are operating on equipment so outdated that the parts are no longer manufactured for replacements, telling host Kristen Welker that the government has to search online for alternatives.

“I’m concerned about the whole airspace. The equipment that we use, much of it we can’t buy parts for new, we have to go on eBay and buy parts if one part goes down. You’re dealing with really old equipment,” he said.

Duffy further acknowledged that while U.S. airspace is safe, a major outage could pose a “risk to life.”

Newark has experienced several significant disruptions since late April, causing hundreds of cancellations and delays, which officials have blamed on aging infrastructure and a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The shortage of air traffic controllers is nothing new, however: It’s been a problem decades in the making. A large bulk of controllers retired over the last 10 years—a coincidence made possible due to the fact that the majority of the staff onboarded simultaneously as replacements for the 11,350 controllers fired by President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

In 2015, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association told Congress that the situation had reached a “crisis” level and that, at the time, the Federal Aviation Administration had missed hiring targets five years in a row. For years, the federal government has failed to properly incentivize younger generations to view the famously high-stress, high-education, and relatively antisocial job as desirable—and similar to other industries, that lapse between the aging workforce and the stalling youth is contributing to a brain drain. (To address this, Duffy also said he’d told the union that air traffic controllers will be allowed to work past the age of 56.)

On top of that, the massive worker shortages have forced controllers to do double duty, for instance at Reagan International Airport, where controllers were reportedly tasked with handling both the flight paths of commercial airplanes and helicopters—work typically done by two separate controllers.

“The Congress and the country haven’t paid attention to it, and they expect it to work,” Duffy told MSNBC.

In February, the administration erased 400 FAA roles, including positions that supported air safety. Duffy confirmed the cuts that time, though he attempted to minimize them by highlighting the overall staffing of the agency, which he claimed employs some 45,000 workers.

At the time, Duffy said he would “supercharge” air traffic controller hiring, hoping to shave four months off the typically arduous onboarding process. But that likely wouldn’t make a dent in America’s air traffic staff anytime soon: It currently takes about four years to become a certified air traffic controller.

Questions have emerged as to whether Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency directed the FAA cuts. But when asked directly about the issue, Duffy skirted the question.

“We were having a conversation about ‘Who do we preserve’,” Duffy said Sunday. “We went back and forth, and Elon agreed; the president agreed, ‘Of course you want to keep air traffic controllers.’ We’re trying to hire more of them. But I think the key is: Can your government be more efficient?”

“You can actually be more efficient and still accomplish the mission of safety,” Duffy told MSNBC.

On Thursday, Duffy released an eight-page framework to replace America’s antiquated aviation infrastructure, revealing at a press conference that the Trump administration would be investing in a “brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world.” Unfortunately, the pitch did not mention how the agency would fund the massive technological overhaul.

Does Donald Trump know the details of his own executive order to reduce the price of pharmaceuticals?

During an address from the White House Monday morning, the president stumbled over the terms of his latest executive order, which set a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to negotiate lower prices in the U.S.

“Drug prices will come down by, much more really if you think—59, if you think of sometimes a drug that is 10 times more expensive, it’s much more than the 59 percent. You know, it depends on the way you want to analyze it, but in one way you could analyze it that way,” Trump said. “But between 59 and 80, and I guess even 90 percent.”

Trump insisted that the prices would be slashed by a far more significant rate than the cut he pushed in his first term. “Well, we’re getting them down 60, 70, 80, 90 percent—but actually more than that if you think about it in a way, mathematically,” he added.

Trump got one thing right: It’s entirely unclear how much prices will be reduced. If pharmaceutical companies fail to strike a deal to lower prices, then the U.S. will tie its drug prices to those paid by other countries. But as of now, nothing has changed.

This is far from the first time the president has struggled trying to explain a policy idea. Last week, the president rambled incoherently when asked to explain why he wanted to reopen Alcatraz.

Donald Trump is trying to claim Qatar’s luxury plane “gift” to him isn’t a big deal because Ronald Reagan did the same thing. 

“I think this was just a gesture of good faith, and, uh, I don’t get it,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House regarding backlash over what suspiciously looks like a bribe. 

“Someday, it’ll be like Ronald Reagan, they decommission them, you know, they get to a certain age, they decommission ’em. It’ll go to my library. They’re talking about going to my library in years out,” Trump added, saying that he wouldn’t be using the jet after he leaves office. 

There is an Air Force One jet at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. But it was used by seven presidents from 1973 to 2001 before being donated to the library in 2004. Reagan left office in 1989 after two terms as president, and passed away two months before the plane arrived at his library. 

When does Trump plan to receive the jet, and when does he plan to have it “decommissioned” and sent to his future presidential library, wherever that may be? The plane gift is not only receiving criticism from Democrats and Trump’s usual critics but even his far-right allies, as a foreign government making such a large donation smacks of corruption. It also isn’t a good look for the primary mode of transportation 
of the president of the United States to come from a foreign country, given potential surveillance concerns.  

No matter how much Trump tries to deflect, receiving a luxury plane from Qatar looks very much like a bribe, especially since the Trump family business struck a deal late last month to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar. But Trump hasn’t shied away from unethical behavior in his second term, especially when there’s money involved.

Pope Leo XIV is calling for an end to the “war of words,” and for the world to stand with journalists seeking truth.

The newly minted pope directly addressed journalists in Italian at a press conference at the Vatican on Monday, making an appeal for kindness, truth, and journalistic freedom.

“The way we communicate is of fundamental importance: We must say ‘no’ to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war,” he said. “Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism, and even hatred; let us free it from aggression. We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice.”

Pope Leo also raised support for journalists jailed or reporting from war zones.

“The Church recognizes these witnesses—I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives—the courage of those who defend dignity, justice, and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices,” he said.

According to Reporters Without Borders, at least 550 journalists are being detained across the world. Around 160 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza.

The speech may catch Trump and JD Vance’s attention, especially given news last week that the pope doesn’t seem to be a huge fan of the two.

This statement is yet another example of Pope Leo setting the tone, leaning into the Catholic social justice that his predecessor, Pope Francis, was known for. Leo has also called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the territory.

Donald Trump is resurrecting one of his controversial first-term policies to supposedly hack prescription drug prices—but the whole effort is such a nothingburger that he very nearly forgot to sign the executive order enacting it.

“Starting today the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of other countries, that’s what we were doing,” Trump said at a White House press conference Monday, referring to the European Union. He then claimed that low drug prices outside the U.S. were because the federal government had been financially offsetting would-be high prices in other countries.

But that’s detached from reality—the U.S. pays more for drugs because it’s an outlier among high-income, first world countries, which predominantly support universal public health coverage.

Trump’s first-term rule—“Most Favored Nation”—was focused on lowering the cost of Medicare payments on certain drugs, but it barely made it out of the White House. The policy was blocked by federal courts shortly after it was announced in late 2020, and was then rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021.

This time around, Trump’s order sets a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to negotiate lower prices. If there is no deal, then the U.S. will tie its drug prices to those paid by other countries. But as of now, nothing has changed.

Trump reiterated that the U.S. would no longer “subsidize” drug prices in other countries, telling reporters that the “game is up,” while alluding to potentially increasing auto tariffs if they don’t comply.

“If they want to get cute, they don’t have to sell cars into the United States anymore. They won’t get cute,” Trump said. “I’ll defend the drug companies from that standpoint.”

He was also characteristically vague on how much prices would change.

“Drug prices will come down by much more really if you think,” Trump said. “But between 59 and 80 and I guess even 90 percent.”

“We’re getting them down 60, 70, 80, 90 percent. But actually more than that if you think about it in a way, mathematically.”

Other things that researchers point to as potentially resolving high drug prices in the U.S. include restricting pharmaceutical monopolies within the country, reworking insurance benefits to restrict out-of-pocket costs, and recentralizing price negotiations through the leverage of a single-payer system (like those of Australia, Germany, the U.K., or any number of other wealthy nations), according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private American foundation focused on health care reform.

But none of that was on Trump’s radar. Instead, the president took time out of his morning to deride Obamacare, which (as of 2024) provided public health insurance to some 45 million Americans. Trump, however, claimed that it “doesn’t work.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who ran for president on a “Medicare for all” platform in 2016, released a statement agreeing with Trump. But he flipped the president’s script slightly, arguing that the problem with drug pricing is not that foreign nations pay too little, but rather that American citizens pay far too much. Sanders also warned Trump’s efforts are doomed to fail.

“Further, as Trump well knows, his executive order will be thrown out by the courts,” Sanders wrote in a press release. “If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries.”

“If Republicans and Democrats come together on this legislation, we can get it passed in a few weeks,” Sanders said.

In a post on Truth Social Sunday, Trump pledged that the initiative would save the government trillions of dollars and falsely claimed that Democrats had stood in the way of this kind of pharmaceutical reform, ignoring the fact that health care and pharmacy drug reform has been a pillar of the progressive platform in recent years (see: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Medicare for All” 2021 revival, which would have created a single-payer system in this country).

“Campaign Contributions can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party. We are going to do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years,” Trump wrote.

But in 2006, Republicans were the ones who adamantly stood in the way of federal drug-price negotiations, ripping the teeth out of a bill that would have mandated drug companies to negotiate lower drug prices with Medicare officials.

“Instead of actually tackling the issues that concern average American families, the Republicans have passed legislation to help their wealthy friends and the huge corporations that support their campaigns,” said former North Carolina Representative G.K. Butterfield at the time before the measure passed.

This story has been updated.