Sean Duffy And Elon Musk Fight Over Firing Air Traffic Controllers In Explosive Trump Cabinet Meeting

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Elon Musk, a senior advisor to the President, openly argued in a recent cabinet meeting, seemingly at odds over air traffic control staffing in a quibble that was exacerbated by President Trump’s suggestion about new hires.

Report: Duffy And Musk At Odd Over Air Traffic Controllers

The New York Times offers an explosive account of Trump’s cabinet meeting on February 26, 2025. I want to focus in particular on a purported exchange between Duffy and Musk, since it involves aviation (the hiring and firing of air traffic controllers):

Musk and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy went back and forth about the state of the Federal Aviation Administration’s equipment for tracking airplanes and what kind of fix was needed. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, jumped in to support Musk.

Duffy said the young staff of Musk’s team was trying to lay off air traffic controllers. What am I supposed to do? Duffy said. I have multiple plane crashes to deal with now, and your people want me to fire air traffic controllers?

Musk told Duffy that his assertion was a “lie.” Duffy insisted it was not; he had heard it from them directly. Musk, asking who had been fired, said: Give me their names. Tell me their names.

Duffy said there were not any names, because he had stopped them from being fired. At another point, Musk insisted that people hired under diversity, equity and inclusion programs were working in control towers. Duffy pushed back and Musk did not add details, but said during the longer back and forth that Duffy had his phone number and should call him if he had any issues to raise.

Wow. In fairness, Musk recently claimed on the Joe Rogan Experience that no controllers were fired or would be fired, other than for incompetence, and that the Federal Aviation Administration was actively recruiting qualified applicants.

Objectively, I’ve seen no evidence that any air traffic controllers (ATCs) were fired or that any Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) workers have tried to fire ATCs. There is also no evidence that any air traffic controller was hired due to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations.

I was agnostic toward Duffy early on…but quickly soured when he used a press conference in the aftermath of the American Airlines crash over Washington National Airport to lavishly praise President Trump when his proper response should have been a sober-minded promise to get to the bottom of the crash and ensure that there were no repeat incidents.

Then he seemed to relish in taking part of Musk’s counterproductive fear campaign to make federal workers justify their roles:

Mr. President, 5 things I did last week:

1. Terminated NYC elitist, anti-worker congestion pricing.
2. Launched an investigation into the $16 billion in taxpayer dollars wasted on a high-speed rail project that, after 17 years, has yet to lay a single mile of track.
3. Saved $10…

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) February 24, 2025

He later downplayed the termination of 400 FAA employees, claiming they served in non-essential roles.

But if he is finally showing some backbone and can truly focus on smartly managing the FAA, hiring more ATCs, and investing in the infrastructure needed to bring the antiquated US air traffic control system into the 21st century, then he will certainly earn my praise.

(of course as Musk tries to win a $2.4 billion FAA telecommunications contract, you do have to wonder whether all of this is simply driven by personal business concerns…)

Trump Wants MIT Geniuses As Air Traffic Controllers

The conversation then took an even odder turn when President Trump suggested that Duffy focus on hiring “geniuses” from MIT to fill the shortage of air traffic controllers.

The exchange ended with Trump telling Duffy that he had to hire people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers need to be “geniuses,” he said.

I don’t think you need to be a genius to be an air traffic controller: just competent. There are multiple barriers to entry to being an air traffic controller including age limits, education, and the stress of the job. Hiring more people, carefully training them, and modernizing the technology they use to do their jobs will result in sufficient manpower for these roles.

There’s some fear (and I find it reasonable) that AI may eventually replace human air traffic controllers, but that is true in almost any industry these days and that risk does not strike me as a clear and present danger to choosing a career that is both respectable and well-paid.

But I know a couple “geniuses” from MIT and they are not the type that like to stick to a single career choice…they like to jump from job to job in an effort to learn more and stretch themselves. They are not the right people to manage US air traffic.

A Warning To The Secretary Of State

And a warning to Marco Rubio, here. Rubio was the object of scorn in this cabinet meeting and if you watched President Trump’s address to Congress on March 4, 2025, there was more than a subtle threat directed toward Rubio. I view Rubio as a man of integrity (at least until he attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskyy too) and I have to imagine he is struggling with all that has unfolded over the last six weeks.

I know this Rubio bit isn’t directly travel-related, but as the President’s principal advisor on foreign policy and representing the U.S. in international affairs, Rubio plays an important role in the exchange of nations, which is at the heart of travel.

If you’ve read Goethe’s Faust, you know that sacrificing your soul to the devil does not end well.

Gerettet oder gerichtet?

To Rubio: be very careful. Do not forget you swore to protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Ultimately you serve the nation, not just the POTUS.

CONCLUSION

The NYT certainly has a left-wing bias and is no fan of President Trump or Elon Musk, but I find it hard to believe that its account of the explosive cabinet meeting last month and the heated exchange between Duffy and Musk was fabricated. I applaud the President for seemingly reigning in the power of Musk and hope that Duffy can do what he promised: help create a safer, leaner, smarter air traffic control system in the USA. Godspeed…

image: White House