With Congress poised to approve a bipartisan deal to end the longest-ever government shutdown in American history, President Donald Trump has turned his attention to attacking air traffic controllers for taking sick time while being forced to remain on the job without pay since the beginning of last month.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the essential safety workers who ensure planes do not crash into each other while traveling through the nation’s busiest airspaces “must get back to work, NOW!!!”
He also threatened that any in the incredibly high-pressure jobs who fail to heed his demand would have their pay “substantially docked” while simultaneously promising that any controllers who remained on the job and did not take any sick time during the 41-day (and counting) lapse in appropriations would receive what he called a $10,000 bonus “for distinguished service to our Country.”
“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU. You didn’t step up to help the U.S.A. against the FAKE DEMOCRAT ATTACK that was only meant to hurt our Country. You will have a negative mark, at least in my mind, against your record,” he said.
Continuing, Trump urged the ATC workers who felt the need to take sick leave during the shutdown to simply quit, writing: “ If you want to leave service in the near future, please do not hesitate to do so, with NO payment or severance of any kind!”
He added that any controllers who chose to resign would be “quickly replaced by true Patriots” despite the fact that training new controllers can take years.
The president’s outburst drew harsh condemnation from the National Air Traffic Controller Association, which in a statement pointed out that the country’s ATC staff have been working without a paycheck since the end of Fiscal Year 2024 on September 30 and stressed that the “vast majority” of “highly trained and skilled professionals” have remained on the clock performing “one of the most stressful and demanding jobs in the world, despite not being compensated” — including “six-day weeks and ten-hour days.”
“These unsung heroes, who report for duty to safely guide this country's passengers and cargo to their destinations, deserve our praise. They have certainly earned it,” the union said.
Trump’s comments came just hours after eight Democratic senators broke ranks from their caucus to pass a bipartisan deal that would reopen the government until January 2026, ensure backpay for federal workers who did not receive a check and undo the reductions in force that the Trump administration put in place during the shutdown.
The agreement also provides for the Senate to vote on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies that were the impetus behind Democrats’ decision not to vote for a GOP bill to extend government funding at last year’s levels through the middle of this month over 40 days ago.
The deal brokered Sunday night reportedly guarantees that Republicans would allow for a vote on extending the Obamacare tax credits in the future. Still, that does not mean that the House of Representatives, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, would be guaranteed to hold a vote, given many of his Republican members, swayed by President Donald Trump, have opposed the tax credits.
Democrats had faced pressure from their supporters to withhold their votes for continued government funding as a way to pressure Republicans into folding in language to extend the subsidies into any bill to reopen the government, but with the shutdown dragging into a sixth week, the pressure on federal workers running the Air Traffic Control system had reached a breaking point, leading to massive delays at airports across the U.S. as the Department of Transportation ordered a reduction in flights, ostensibly for safety reasons.
At a press conference on Monday, NATCA president Nick Daniels told reporters that six weeks working without pay was taking a toll on his members and could lead to danger for the flying public.
"Now [air traffic controllers] must focus on child care instead of traffic flows, food for their families instead of runway separation. This is not politics. This is not ideology. This is the erosion of the safety margin the flying public never sees but America relies on every single day,” he said.
"When the most disciplined safety workforce in America is forced to think about survival instead of public safety. This is the cost."
Daniels added that controllers were “not a political pawn” and should “not be used as a rope in this game.”
"For a workforce that has to go in and be one hundred percent [for] one hundred percent of the time, there is no world where it just operates the same and smoothly when people aren't receiving pay,” he said.
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