Transportation Secretary Gets Pressed Over Repeated Airport Failures And Musk’s FAA Cuts

Sean Duffy was grilled over whether Elon Musk's cuts via DOGE have “made this situation worse" and "increased the challenges and potential safety concerns."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a newly implemented federal agency under the Trump administration, “never” asked him to fire Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers.

While appearing on Sunday’s episode of “Meet the Press,” Duffy claimed that he and the tech billionaire “get along great” after host Kristen Welker questioned whether he and Musk clashed due to DOGE’s sweeping federal workforce cuts.

The cuts, which included the potential for layoffs of air traffic controllers, sparked widespread concerns about the FAA’s ability to maintain safe and efficient air traffic control operations, particularly amid recent aircraft fatalities.

Welker grilled Duffy over whether Musk cuts via DOGE have “made this situation worse” and “increased the challenges and potential safety concerns.”

“We actually have staffed up. We’ve hired more air traffic controllers during this time,” Duffy said while claiming that no air traffic controllers were fired during the cuts. “There were probationary workers that were let go — those were employees who were there less than a year — and again, we excluded the safety positions…most of them have come back.”