California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) criticized President Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy over the shortage of air traffic controllers at Hollywood Burbank Airport on Monday.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a publicly available advisory Monday that Hollywood Burbank Airport, located near Los Angeles, experienced delays due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. The airport had no air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time, but it posted on the social platform X at 6:44 p.m. PDT that “operations are continuing.”
“Thanks @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15 p.m. to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown,” Newsom said on X at 3:43 p.m. PDT.
Duffy responded roughly two hours later, blaming Newsom’s party for the shutdown. Amid the shutdown negotiations and blame game, Republicans have accused Democrats of attempting to expand access to certain health care programs to undocumented immigrants.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Trump on July 4, restricted access for lawfully present immigrants, including refugees and asylees, to Medicaid, Medicare, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace enrollment, according to non-partisan health policy research group KFF. Democrats in Congress have sought to repeal those provisions and permanently extend subsidies offered under the ACA.
“Your Democrat friends shut down the government because they want to make Americans pay the health care for illegals,” Duffy said. “And no state has more illegals than California!”
The Transportation secretary repeated his claims on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday morning, calling Newsom “unbelievable.”
Newsom followed up with a post on X mocking Duffy, saying that despite the staffing shortages and travel delays, the secretary “has time to do Fox and Friends and complain about how a Governor hurt his feelings.”
The Hill has also reached out to the White House for comment on Newsom’s remarks.
While the FAA furloughed over 11,000 employees in accordance with the Transportation Department’s shutdown contingency plan, over 13,000 air traffic controllers are working without pay as essential workers.
In January 2019, during the last shutdown, an increase in the amount of controllers calling out sick resulted in travel delays along the East Coast.
During a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, Duffy noted there has been a slight increase in the number of controllers taking sick days since the lapse in government funding began last Wednesday.