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Trump delivers remarks during an event at the Great Hall of the Department of Justice on 14 March 14 2025 in Washington D.C. Alamy
Blame Game
Trump blames Biden administration for nationwide US flight disruption
The ground stop not only plunged US air travel into chaos, it also raised serious concerns about the country’s ageing infrastructure.
US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has blamed the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden for the nationwide ground stop that disrupted domestic and international travel.
Airlines cancelled thousands of flights across the US on Saturday as they worked to recover from the longest nationwide ground stop in 25 years.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the four-hour ground stop was declared after maintenance work to upgrade an old copper wire to a high-speed fibre cable had caused “issues” with communication with planes and radar feeds.
In his first comments on the issue since the incident, Trump called the Biden administration’s aviation management a “disaster.”
“Everything they touched turned bad,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Big money spent unwisely, making an old and broken system worse than when they began.”
A few minutes later, Trump wrote: “If Congress approves the desperately needed money for Air Traffic Control, we can get it built quickly and efficiently.
“It will be the BEST SYSTEM anywhere in the World. Much of our current air control system is 50 years old – RIDICULOUS! We have already started the work, but it should be done all at once, not in drips and drabs. Congress must approve. The Biden Administration set it back years!”.
The ground stop not only plunged US air travel into chaos, it also raised serious concerns about the country’s ageing infrastructure.
Duffy appealed for $50 billion (€45.24 billion) in funds to upgrade and modernise the air traffic control system, and called for Congress, which controls the purse strings of the US government, to “meet this moment.”
“Cut the crap,” retorted Illinois state governor and prominent Democrat JB Pritzker on X. “Trump and Republicans have controlled Congress and could have funded the system.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called on Duffy to resign or be fired by Trump, writing on X: “We’re fortunate no lives were lost.”
US lawmakers called for investigations into what caused the massive disruption and whether the country is adequately secure from cyber criminality.
“If today proves anything, it’s that we need to update our air traffic control system & rebuild our airport infrastructure,” Republican Senator Eric Schmitt said on X.
With reporting by AFP
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