WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump broke his silence Sunday on the nationwide ground stop that scolded plane trip this weekend, using the incident to push Congress for funds to completely modernize America’s air traffic control system.
The Republican president has remained noticeably silent on the ground since the operation began Friday afternoon, instead issuing statements on social media on completely different topics as frustrated passengers were stranded at airports and his government scrambled with airlines to restore normal travel.
Trump said in a new post on his social media platform that his administration has begun to improve this system, but that the task should not be accomplished “in a piecemeal fashion.” The Republican-controlled Congress last year approved $12.5 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration as part of the party’s sweeping tax-cut package, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has repeatedly called the funding a down payment on a broader overhaul of the aging system.
“If Congress approves the desperately needed money for air traffic control, we can build it quickly and efficiently,” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday. “This will be the BEST SYSTEM in the world. Much of our current air control system is 50 years old – RIDICULOUS!”
In another post, he complained about how his Democratic predecessor maintained the FAA and air traffic control system, accusing Joe Biden’s administration of making an “old and broken system worse than when it started.”
Biden signed a massive infrastructure bill in the first year of his presidency, which included $25 billion for the FAA to improve airports and its traffic control towers, to redevelop airport terminals and to “improve the foundation” of the air traffic control system, according to the FAA.
Duffy was the public face of the administration on the ground during Sunday news broadcasts, lobbying Congress for billions of dollars to improve air traffic control infrastructure.
“I can’t apologize for what was handed down to us. And I can’t blame the Republicans or the Democrats, because it’s both. It goes back 20, 25, 30 years of lack of investment,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In a post on social media platform He said the problem started when L3Harris was replacing a section of old copper wire with new fiber wire, somehow causing the system to overload.
After the wire was replaced at the El Dorado, Ark., site and the router was powered on, a problem then occurred at a facility in Amarillo, Texas, impacting the ground stop. “We didn’t think this was supposed to happen or was going to happen,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”
As for the traveling public, he told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “we have some delays in the airspace right now,” but looking toward the end of the day and Monday, “we should be operating at full capacity.”
During a ground stop, planes and crews are moved around, he said, “so it takes a little time for the airliners to get back…at full capacity and operational, but we’re on the right track.”
Gn headline
