Transportation Secretary Is Playing Literal Games With Air Safety

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has bet big on video gamers to fix the country’s dangerous shortage of air traffic controllers—but it probably won’t pay off.

Duffy announced the results of DOT’s unorthodox hiring campaign to use a “supercharged” hiring process to recruit gamers Sunday night. Since launching in April, the DOT has reached 94 percent of its hiring goal, bringing in more than 2,000 new air traffic controllers—“the most in a single year.”

The secretary claimed candidates belonging to the “best and brightest” campaign were now “reaching the Academy quicker than any class before them, thanks to the most streamlined hiring process.”

But Duffy may be counting his chickens before they’ve hatched. Turning a trainee into a certified professional controller takes up to two years, and roughly one third of trainees never complete the process. Every unsuccessful trainee costs the government roughly $130,000.

While gamers may have the multi-tasking skills, high cognitive function, and spatial awareness the Federal Aviation Administration is seeking, will they be given the support they need not to rage quit?

Air traffic controllers experience extreme stress and burnout, and it doesn’t seem that the FAA is going to be able to fix that problem any time soon.

In May, the FAA announced that it would reduce its air traffic controller staffing target from 14,633 to 12,563, citing modernized staffing models. In reality, the agency planned to increase the amount of time employees spent managing air traffic after discovering that air traffic controllers had logged 2.2 million hours of overtime in 2024, costing the government roughly $200 million. Even with the reduced targets, the FAA remains short roughly 1,800 controllers. Nationally, about two-thirds of the FAA’s largest facilities remain below 85 percent of their staffing targets.

It’s also surprising that simply a “streamlined” hiring process would result in so many applicants being approved for training. Typically, less than 10 percent of applicants gain admission to the training academy in Oklahoma City.

The FAA announced in March 2025 that it had streamlined the process of hiring air traffic controllers by implementing a “fully automated” qualification process, allowing applicants to proceed individually, not in a group, and making the comprehensive medical and security checks concurrent. It’s not immediately clear why those changes would dramatically boost the number of successful applicants if the application process still includes pre-employment tests, including an aptitude test designed to weed out applicants lacking mental acuity.

Representative Nancy Mace went on an Islamphobic tirade on CNN Sunday and had to be given a lesson on the Constitution.

CNN’s Omar Jimenez was interviewing the South Carolina congresswoman, who finished fifth in the state’s primary for governor and will not hold elected office at the end of 2026. He asked her about some posts she made on X Friday in which she attacked Muslims holding political office.

“Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic,” Mace posted. When British columnist Owen Jones criticized her bigotry, she replied on Sunday: “If not wanting to be blown up, stabbed, or rammed by a car by a radical Islamist in the United States of America makes us Islamophobes, then so be it.”

Jimenez asked Mace if she was saying that every Muslim was a threat to the U.S., which she denied. She then went on a tangent on terrorism, attacking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for associating with controversial figures (such as leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker). Jimenez pointed out that Mace didn’t make specific criticisms; she attacked Muslims as a whole.

Mace continued on her racist tirade, warning that “in the future, when our granddaughters are wearing burqas to school, we’re going to look back and say, ‘How did this happen?’” She also attacked the city of Dearborn, Michigan for “the call to prayer five times a day,” saying she didn’t want to hear it in an American city. That’s when Jimenez had to give her a lesson on the Constitution’s First Amendment.

“If you don’t want to hear it, that’s okay. The First Amendment protects from freedom of religion. You know, I grew up in a Christian household, I grew up in the south. Islam is not my religion, but I have Muslim friends, who, if that is how they worship, even if I don’t want to hear it, that is their right to hear it,” Jimenez said, to which Mace said it was fine in the privacy of their homes, but not on American streets.

Mace tried to steer the topic towards women being forced to cover their faces, to which Jimenez reminded her that she wasn’t being forced to do that, and that no Muslim elected officials were pushing anything resembling that. Jimenez then simply spelled out what the Constitution says.

“I appreciate you taking the time and explaining your tweet as best you could there, but the First Amendment is pretty clear on freedom of religion. Article 6, also, ‘no religious test shall ever be required as a test for political office,’” Jimenez said.

As out of line as Mace’s views are, they are not likely to face condemnation from any of her Republican colleagues. Islamophobia is mainstream within the party today, and will still be there when Mace leaves office in January.

President Donald Trump admits he lied about having proof of alleged vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool while still refusing to drop his claims. 

In a post on Truth Social Sunday evening, Trump claimed that a National Park Service career employee, “a highly credible witness,” watched former U.S. Olympian David Hearn “‘violently’ ripping and tugging at the Pool’s somewhat delicate coating.”

“There was substantial other damage to the Reflecting Pool, also but, unfortunately, there is no video or proof, other than the damage, itself,” Trump wrote.

“Security cameras have been, and are being, installed,” he added.

Trump included an excerpt from the government’s initial criminal complaint—a claim that was walked back in a later filing. The government admitted that its witness “could not identify any additional cost caused by Mr. Hearn’s alleged conduct. Indeed, the witness did not even say or suggest that the alleged conduct had compromised the liner at all.”

A week ago, Trump claimed during a press conference that the government possessed photographic and video evidence proving that multiple individuals had vandalized the Reflecting Pool. Shortly after, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro hauled a crate of evidence to the Oval Office in order to explain to the president why that wasn’t actually true. The Department of Justice had previously been forced to admit that damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by the contractor’s “flawed” installation of the pool lining, not vandals. 

Still, the next day, the president ranted to the press about a supposed “tape,” and one or two witnesses who could confirm his narrative.  

Trump’s latest post indicates that some of the truth may have gotten through to him—but it was too little, too late. A judge officially tossed the felony charges against Hearn on Thursday. 

This week, Representative Jamie Raskin—the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee—will formally demand that the Justice and Interior Departments turn over a wealth of documents related to the charging decisions made in this case.

President Donald Trump may be willing to end the Iran war without a nuclear deal. 

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the president floated declaring victory in the war if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz without a deal on the country’s nuclear program. But that seems increasingly unlikely with Iran now demanding that U.S. soldiers leave the area, as well as an end to the American blockade and billions of dollars in payment. 

Trump has repeatedly threatened to escalate the war with more intense bombing of Iranian targets, but he hasn’t followed through, claiming that a deal is imminent. In reality, the America’s allies in the Middle East urged Trump not to ramp up bombing, and U.S. commanders have told him that missile and bomb stockpiles have dwindled. 

Iran’s stronger conditions for a deal signal it is digging in and willing to wait out Trump for a more favorable agreement, knowing that he has few options. Iran has proven that throttling maritime traffic through the strait is an effective way to secure leverage, causing gas prices to skyrocket worldwide and badly hurting the global economy. 

The longer the war drags on, causing the U.S. economy to suffer in the process, the worse it looks for the president and the Republican Party ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump is desperate to end the war, but has backed himself into a corner by repeatedly pushing the talking point that he will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

One White House official told the Journal that the U.S. has completed all of its military objectives against Iran, and that Trump is only focused now on the free flow of oil through the strait. Trump himself told Axios on Sunday that he is “low-keying it” when it comes to negotiating with Iran. 

“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump said. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game.”

That seems to indicate that the president is willing to swallow a deal that doesn’t mention Iran’s nuclear program, no matter how bad it makes him look.  

President Donald Trump is reviving his campaign to oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

In a letter signed by White House deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, the White House informed Cook Wednesday that it was once again “considering” removing her from her position. The letter demanded Cook respond to the baseless allegations that she committed mortgage fraud within 21 days.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that Trump could not fire Cook, finding that the government had not afforded her the protections she was entitled to by statute, and as a result temporarily preserving the Federal Reserve’s independence.

Last August, Trump declared that he was booting Cook—the first Black woman on the Federal Reserve board—over claims she committed mortgage fraud by having two primary residences. Cook refused to step down and sued, stating that “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so.”

Following the Supreme Court ruling, the case was set to be sent back to a lower court. The higher court declined to weigh in on Cook’s allegations, and did not lay out clear criteria for Trump to fire Cook.

In a statement, Cook’s lawyers stated that the allegations of mortgage fraud were “as baseless now as they were a year ago.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s own mortgage agreements appear to match the same criteria his Department of Justice has used to go after many of the president’s enemies.