President Donald Trump on Sunday made his first public comments about Friday's nationwide ground stop by the Federal Aviation Administration, blaming the Biden administration for making an "old and broken" air traffic control system worse and urging Congress to approve more money to modernize it. "The Biden Administration was an FAA disaster," Trump wrote on his social media platform. "Big money spent unwisely, making an old and broken system worse than when they began." He added that his administration has "the knowledge and plan for the Flight Control Systems," but said "we need Congress to give the money, FAST!"
The ground stop lasted more than four hours on Friday, disrupting flights nationwide, contributing to thousands of cancellations and delays, and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. Trump had not commented publicly on the stop in the two days since it was ordered, although he had posted on social media about unrelated matters while travelers were stranded. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who appeared on five television news shows, served as the administration's public face in assuring travelers that it was safe to fly as airports and airlines worked to restore normal operations.S1S2
The FAA said its equipment became unstable after a high volume of data flooded its network, and that contractor work at one site may be related, though the underlying cause remains under investigation. Officials are analyzing two routers installed in recent weeks at FAA facilities in Arkansas and Texas. Duffy said the government wants to determine the "root cause" before making broad fixes to the air traffic control system: "We're going to figure out what was the root cause and then move forward from there."S1S2
Congress approved $12.5 billion for the FAA last year as part of a major tax and spending package, but Duffy has characterized that money as a down payment on a broader overhaul of the aging system. Trump has said upgrades should not be done in "drips and drabs" and argued that Congress should fund the work so it can be built quickly. Biden had signed an infrastructure bill in his first year in office setting aside $25 billion for the FAA, including money to upgrade the foundation of the air traffic control system.S1S2
Nationwide FAA ground stops are rare. The last two before the November 2026 shutdown followed the September 11 attacks and a brief FAA computer outage in January 2023.S1
