Many US government workers are surprised by the lengths President Donald Trump is going to exact revenge on his political adversaries, The Guardian reports insiders say.
Per the report, while some officials resigned ahead of Trump’s inauguration, some remained in their positions, hoping for the best.
“The most common refrain I’m hearing from people who have left but are still talking to people on the inside is: ‘I knew it was going to be bad but I didn’t think it was going to be this bad,'” longtime Democratic lawyer Mark Bergman told the Guardian.
The news outlet notes that Bergman “has been in contact with some of those who fear being targets of the retribution Trump repeatedly vowed” during his campaign.
Although Trump — in less than two weeks — has already snatched Secret Service protection from former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, ex-Trump CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former Assistant Secretary of State Brian Hook, “more intense vengeance may have been felt by anonymous civil servants who were less prepared,” the Guardian emphasizes.
“There’s certainly shellshock,” Bergman told the news outlet.
“My view is that Trump is animated by his revenge and retribution agenda.”
The Democratic attorney also noted, “People are being moved reassigned, fired or otherwise [put] under pressure, if they are not able to say that they are mission-aligned, which is the phrase being used by the transition team to mean you will carry out the orders of the president regardless of whether they’re lawful or not.”
(The above statement is a lie. The left/Biden has been conducting business outside of the Constitution and President Trump is bringing all departments back into the Constitution – which the left doesn’t like.)
The 47th POTUS, Donald John Trump…Making it Right!
As we approach the two week marker, President Donald John Trump has accomplished more in this short time period than Dementia Joe did in four years. Moreover, POTUSDJT has met more with the antagonistic dregs of the legacy, corporate mainstream media, who have reverted to their first term ways of unprofessional and accusatory phrasing of questions. Additionally, POTUSDJT has met more with the same aforementioned people and answered more questions in one week than Biden did in four years. He doesn’t finish after four questions. He doesn’t turn his back to shuffle away. He doesn’t look to shake hands with an imaginary friend AND he doesn’t ask for the permission of his staff to take another scripted question from a pre-picked reporter. They knew for the longest time that Biden was slipping down the cognitive declining slope at warp speed.
In the same time frame, President Donald John Trump has already issued over 300 Executive Orders to countermand the damage inflicted by the Biden-Harris administration. For example, POTUSDJT has taken action to secure the southern and northern borders; stop illegal immigration, while actively employing ICE, CBP, DEA, IRS, ATF, US Marshalls Service and the FBI to only go after illegal aliens with prior criminal history and to deport illegal alien criminals currently incarcerated, along with those under federal retainer, despite numbers of illegal alien criminals mandatorily released by the police in sanctuary cities and states; end birthright citizenship; resume drilling to restore American energy dominance and energy independence; slash burdensome Federal business regulations; fire corrupt deep state bureaucrats, along with those who worked for Jack Smith regarding the bogus presidential records case; end DEI programs in the federal government and all the branches of the military; end federal censorship and bring peace in the Middle East and Europe, both of which were direct results of Biden’s failed foreign policies due to the torpedoing of the American energy sector, which opened the door for Russia and Venezuela.
RGV
As for the southern border, in addition to the Federal government law enforcement officers assigned to the border, over 400 Texas National Guard troops and equipment began arriving in the Rio Grande Valley to assist with border security. Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) stated that he had ordered the deployment of troops from bases located in Fort Worth and Houston to work on the ground in conjunction with CBP agents in South Texas. He was also sending aircraft, like military transport C-130s and Chinook helicopters. As troops were arriving at the McAllen International Airport, they were loaded into buses and accompanied by Border Patrol. “Texas has a partner in the White House we can work with to secure the Texas-Mexico border,” Abbott said in a statement. “To support that mission, today, I deployed the Texas Tactical Border Force, comprised of hundreds of troops, to work side-by-side with U.S. Border Patrol agents to stop illegal immigrants from entering our country and to enforce immigration laws.”
Partners!
In extending Governor Abbott’s comment regarding having a “partner in the White House,” after four years of being a leaderless Constitutional Republic, law enforcement on the Federal government, State governments and local municipalities, now have a leader who will support them as they detain, arrest and deport those illegal aliens. Don’t forget that any illegal alien who crossed the northern or southern borders illegally broke US immigration laws. Moreover, President Donald John Trump signed Executive Orders cutting off the funding for Non-Government Organizations who are involved in bringing illegal aliens into the country, such as Catholic Charities and increase the capability of streamlining the vetting for refugees and those submitting visa applications. It does include a ban on countries that have inadequate and insufficient screening procedures, such as Afghanistan or Syria for example, in order to make sure that countries are transparent with the people who are arriving here. Moreover, if an individual overstays their visa, they will be considered an illegal alien.
New York City
The New York Post reported that heavily armed federal immigration agents swept through New York City, as they did in Chicago, bringing into detention upwards of 30 accused illegal aliens murderers and narcotics traffickers in the first deportation raids regarding President Donald John Trump’s campaign promises. The Trump administration is planning to execute three major immigration raids in US cities per week. As reported by NBC News, ICE’s 25 field offices were directed during a meeting to “enhance” their “routine operations” by hitting a quota of 1200-1500 arrests per day. According to ICE, there are approximately 60,000 “bad actors” in NYC, without counting the gotaways. Moreover, since NYC is a sanctuary city, there is additional stress on the city’s budget…in other words, illegal aliens are very expensive and take away from other services for New Yorkers.
It’s interesting that during former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ time in office, not one time did he go into the field with those in his charge, as they executed their duties. On the flip side, new appointed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was recently confirmed by the Senate, was out to witness criminal and civil operations conducted as she accompanied ICE operations in NYC. On her “X” account, she wrote: “We are doing this right…doing exactly what President Donald Trump promised the American people…making our streets safe.” This was written as the operations were being executed. She later posted a video showing a person being detained, stating that the “criminal alien with kidnapping, assault and burglary charges is now in custody.” All Mayorkas did was perjure himself for 3.5 years and as the 2024 poll numbers tanked for Biden, under White House directive, he changed his tune and stated that the borders will be tightened. Furthermore, the Biden-Harris administration brought back some of the Trump immigration policies, but 21 million reasons too late.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams(D) issued a statement on what appeared to be that same arrest Noem mentioned, confirming that a criminal suspect in NYC was taken into custody. “I directed the NYPD to coordinate with DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations and other federal law enforcement agencies, as allowed by law, to conduct a targeted operation to arrest an individual connected with multiple violent crimes, both here in New York and in Aurora, Colorado, including burglary, kidnapping, extortion, firearms possession, menacing with a firearm, crime of violence, and other charges,” he said. Cooperation!
Border Czar Tom Homan
As for “The Windy City”…Chicago..the illegal alien arrest crackdowns began last week. President Donald John Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, stated that among the people arrested in Chicago, six were convicted of serious offenses, two were previously convicted of murder and aggravated sexual battery, and multiple others were gang members. As arrests continued, there were 10 teams of about 10 Federal agents each canvassing the city in order to continue their operations. Chicago is a sanctuary city that protects migrants seeking citizenship, as specifically stated by radical, progressive, liberal Mayor Brandon Johnson(D). Under those protections, cooperation between the Chicago PD and immigration agents is prohibited. Additional sanctuary cities include Los Angeles, whose City Council formally adopted a sanctuary city ordinance late last year that prohibits city resources or personnel from being used to aid in federal enforcement of immigration laws. Other sanctuary cities that are apparently ignoring the DEA, ICE and federal immigration laws, aside from New York City(?), include Boston, San Francisco, Denver, San Diego and Miami, where the crime rates were rising during the Biden disaster.
ICE in NYC
In Chicago, local activists, legislators and school administrators have been coaching migrants, including criminals charged with sex assaults, weapons violations and worse, on their rights and how to evade ICE agents. Even those detained were fairly defiant. And that complicates matters just a bit.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer
Furthermore, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer(R-KY) has singled out four of the nation’s most defiant sanctuary city mayors to testify before Congress about their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. “Sanctuary jurisdictions and their misguided and obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities, making Americans less safe,” Comer wrote in letters to each mayor. The committee specifically targeted Boston Mayor Michelle Wu(D), Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson(D) and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston(D),accusing their cities of standing out “in their abject failure to comply with federal law.”
Johnston, Wu, Johnson and Adams
The aforementioned radical, progressive leaders didn’t wait too long to fire back at the House Oversight Committee. Denver’s Johnston fired off a dismissive response: “The most helpful thing Congressional Republicans could do right now is fix our broken immigration system.”Obviously, here’s another Democrat who fails to research history, even recent history, regarding the immigration issue/crisis/problem. What I am referring too is that during Obama’s two terms was that he had control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and failed to resolve the immigration problem. During President Donald John Trump’s first term, he got the borders under control until secure borders were blown up by Biden. Adams has been called to Washington DC later this month to testify before a congressional committee about New York City’s sanctuary city policies.
Adams was sent a letter by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after Chairman Comer announced an investigation into sanctuary cities’ “impact on public safety and federal immigration enforcement.” The letter was also sent to Boston Mayor Wu, Chicago Mayor Johnson, and Denver Mayor Johnson, with their presence being requested before the committee on the morning of February 11.
Despite the claims that the radical, progressive liberals are leveling regarding the mass deportation of illegal criminal aliens ICE has been well received by New York City residents in the Hispanic and Black communities that supported President Donald John Trump in huge numbers in the 2024 election, celebrated the local immigration raids that nabbed a plethora of suspected heinous criminals. As reported by The New York Post, with the deportation raids starting in the Bronx, where Trump’s support surged 35% between 2020 and 2024, heavily armed federal immigration officers canvassed the city, with 969 illegal aliens arrested nationwide with warrants for murder, kidnapping and other heinous crimes. And that number will rise!
ICE raids in NYC
Black and Hispanic residences in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods were thrilled with ICE raids removing “asylum seekers” with warrants for hideous crimes like murder and kidnapping. For years the Democrats have taken poor and minority voters for granted, who have suffered from radical, progressive elitists’ insane policies and their defund the police agenda. A resident of Washington Heights, which is in deep-blue Manhattan, where Trump gained 5% in 2024 over his 2020 showing, said he’s happy to see some action being taken against criminals but added that he still hopes some deserving migrant families are offered a path to safety. Legal immigration? What a novel idea!
Illegals at the northern border
While an overwhelming majority of the focus is rightfully on the southern border, there is an increasing need to address the northern border….the US and Canada. Encounters at the northern border have increased by nearly 82% from fiscal 2022, with fiscal 2024, going from more than 109,000 to nearly 199,000 as reported by CBP. New York State border encounters increased by more than 41% from 81,000 in fiscal 2022 to nearly115,000 in fiscal 2024. Federal staffing data shows 2,019 CBP officers for the entire northern border, compared with 16,878 on the southern border. These numbers are as of 2022.
The aforementioned Democratic run city and states have promised resistance to the detainment, arrest and deportation of illegal alien criminals from their domains. What those elected officials fail to realize is that by resisting the voice of the 60% of the people who not only voted them into their offices, but adamantly support POTUSDJT’s planned deportations of criminal illegal aliens. The politicians who govern the Democratic run sanctuary cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City(?), have failed to hear the voices of their constituents who are affected most by a lack of employment, low paying jobs, a reduced availability of housing, homicides, assaults, drugs, robberies and burglaries. As for the homicides, for example, just remember Laken Riley, Georgia(murder), Rachel Morin, Maryland(murder), Christopher Gadd, Washington(murder), Weston Fundner, California (fentanyl poisoning), Jocelyn Nungaray, Texas(murder), Kayla Hamilton, Maryland(murder),and Kate Steinle, California(murder).
No apologies…not one meeting or words to the families.
These progressive Democrats quite apparently did not learn their lessons regarding the safekeeping of their constituents and not following the party’s agenda. Were there any kind of apologies coming from Biden, Harris and former Mayorkas, who perjured himself for 3.5 years before the Congress, in public and while on mainstream media talk shows, without facing any real confrontations from the progressive, radical left. That all changed six months out from the November 5 presidential election. The administration decided to tighten things up because then former President Donald John Trump was ahead in the polls by substantial margins. Too little, too late.
What’s also stoking the flame to execute operations quickly and professionally, aside from POTUS’ support, is that law enforcement officials didn’t throw the bull as they executed the most successful immigration enforcement operation since President Donald John Trump’s return to office. Interestingly, with television cameras and Dr. Phil McGraw riding along, ICE agents demonstrated exactly what protecting American communities looked like. And who could not be more objective than Dr. Phil as a witness? On the flip side, the hypocritical, mysoginistic, narcissistic, egotistical, egocentric phonies of the entertainment industry have taken to calling the deportation of illegal criminal aliens as heartless and un-American. What could be more un-American than illegal criminal aliens committing crimes against American citizens who do not have the money to hire private, and armed, personal security?
Where are Gomez’s condolences to the Angel Families? Bloody crocodile tears!
Jocelyn Nungaray
One of those entertainers is pop star Selena Gomez, who broke down in tears on Instagram, sharing her concern that her “people” were getting “attacked,” while posting an emotional video that showed just how disconnected Hollywood celebrities are from everyday Americans’ concerns about safety and security. To be perfectly frank, if I was walking down the street and Gomez walked by me, I couldn’t give her the time of day by not knowing anything about her or recognizing her, In other words, she’s a big whoop! And who exactly is “her people?” And the video was pulled as quickly as it was posted! And response, the White House released the recorded messages from the mothers of Kayla Hamilton, Rachel Morin and Jocelyn Nungaray, who called out Gomez and the Hollywood elite for not crying for their children, as they support President Donald John Trump’s immigration policies. By the way, the bootlicking dregs of the corporate, coastal mainstream media failed to broadcast any Angel Families‘ story.
Kayla Hamilton
In most cases the Hollywood nimrods cannot face, or handle the truth(sorry Colonel Jessup), so they employ and listen to “yes-men!” So, we have the previously mentioned Border Czar Tom Homan speaking the clear and concise truth. Homan, who’s supervising the national operation, returned fire with a harsh message to critics like Gomez and others of similar radical, progressive delusions: “If people don’t like it, they should go to Congress and change the law,” Homan declared on Fox News. “We’re going to make our communities safer. No apologies. We’re moving forward.”And they are doing the job that the Biden-Harris administration would never permit. In just one day, ICE agents apprehended 956 illegal aliens the highest single-day total since Trump returned to office. The previous three days saw another 1,417 arrests, with operations continuing across Chicago, Newark, and Miami.
As Gomez and other entertainers made their attempts at empathy, Homan pointed out that these countrywide operations isn’t about emotion or sympathy. It’s about enforcing the Federal immigration laws and protecting American communities. The statistics shed light on the truth: nearly 2,400 arrests in just four days between January 23-27, 2025, with operations continuing nationwide.
Furthermore, as President Donald John Trump prepared to sign the Laken Reilly Act into law, there are members of the radical, progressive left, and the aforementioned entertainment industry nimrods, who are against the ratification of this bill. I wonder if they would feel any different if they were part of the heartbroken group of Angel Families who will never see their loved ones again?
As reported by Breitbart News, during a recent broadcast of NewsNation’s “Cuomo,” Democratic strategist James Carville argued that there was an issue on the border because Biden “listened to the idiot left and didn’t enforce the border.” But a marginal amount of things had improved since because of the poll numbers and by the time Biden left office, “it was a manageable situation down there.”Carville said, “So, there’s a lot of difference between where it was three years ago and what happened when President Trump took office. The criminality of all kind should be dealt with and dealt with harshly. And if there’s anybody in this country illegally that is a criminal, they’ve got to be sent back wherever they came from pronto, just like anybody that’s legally in this country who’s a criminal…needs to be tried and convicted and sent to jail pronto.” As previously stated, the only reason for the small improvement at the southern border was that Biden’s poll numbers were in the toilet and he hoped that his actions would perk up his numbers.
Not only are legacy media outlets’ attempting to paint Trump as racist and heartless for his focus on illegal immigration, but their words and empty rhetoric are not affecting Americans’ opinion of the president, but they don’t appear to be driving ratings to the outlets at all, where legacy mainstream media news outlets are losing viewership at record numbers.
In another instance of POTUSDJT’s promises made, promises kept, he stated that he plans to send up to 30,000 illegal aliens to detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of his campaign to mass-deport illegal aliens who have committed crimes. “Today, I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said while signing the anti-illegal immigration Laken Riley Act. The President stated that people were not aware that GitMo could hold 30,000 beds.
And I can guarantee that members of the radical, progressive left will accuse the Trump-Vance administration of doing what President Franklin Roosevelt, who was a racist and anti-Semite, did by relocating Japanese Americans to WWII internment camps like Manzanar, solely because they were Japanese. President Donald John Trump’s plan is to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”He was also correct in determining that the illegal aliens’ home countries may not want them back.
Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, a patriot’s patriot.
In regards to relocating illegal criminal aliens to GitMo, Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth stated that Guantanamo Bay is a “perfect place” to hold criminal migrants “safely in the interim” as the process to repatriate them to their homelands plays out. “This is a temporary transit, which is already the mission of naval station Guantanamo Bay, where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from in proper process,” Hegseth shared on FNC. The Migrant Operations Center holds individuals detained at sea, primarily from Haiti and Cuba.
POTUSDJT… Making America Safe Again
During the remarkable first week plus of President Donald John Trump’s second term, in a single day, immigration authorities made nearly 1,200 arrests nationwide, demonstrating the scale of the criminal alien problem these sanctuary policies enabled. Current polling shows over 70% support these enforcement actions. And just ask Colombian President Gustavo Petro where President Donald John Trump stands on illegal immigration.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro’s podcast reaches new heights with 100 million Spotify streams and prestigious industry awards.
At a Glance
“The Ben Shapiro Show” received Spotify Creator Milestone Award for 100 million streams
The podcast is syndicated on over 200 radio stations nationwide
It won Best News Podcast at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards
The show has been ranked as the second-most popular podcast in the U.S.
Milestone Achievement in Streaming
“The Ben Shapiro Show,” hosted by the outspoken conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, has hit a remarkable milestone in digital media. The podcast recently surpassed 100 million streams on Spotify, earning it the prestigious Spotify Creator Milestone Award. This achievement places Shapiro’s show among the ranks of other top-tier podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “Crime Junkie,” which have also received this recognition.
The Spotify Creator Milestone Awards are given quarterly to celebrate top engagement milestones, making this a significant indicator of the show’s popularity and reach. Notably, this marks the first time Spotify has publicly revealed streaming numbers for podcasters, underscoring the importance of Shapiro’s achievement in the competitive world of digital audio content.
From Digital Success to Radio Domination
The success of “The Ben Shapiro Show” extends beyond the digital realm. Launched in 2015 under The Daily Wire, the podcast quickly became one of the fastest-growing in its category. By 2017, it had climbed to become the second-most listened-to podcast on iTunes, surpassed only by Oprah Winfrey’s podcast at one point.
The show’s popularity led to its expansion into traditional radio. In April 2018, Westwood One began syndicating the podcast to radio stations, and by January 2019, it had grown into a three-hour show. The rapid growth continued, and by March 2019, “The Ben Shapiro Show” was being broadcast on over 200 stations nationwide, including in nine of the top ten markets.
Industry Recognition and Rankings
The podcast’s influence and reach have not gone unnoticed by industry observers. In 2018, POLITICO described the show as “massively popular,” a characterization that has proven accurate given its subsequent growth. In March 2019, Podtrac, a leading podcast analytics company, ranked “The Ben Shapiro Show” as the second-most popular podcast in the United States, further cementing its status as a major player in the news and commentary space.
The crowning achievement came in January 2019 when the show won the Best News Podcast Award at the inaugural iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. This recognition from peers and industry experts highlighted the show’s impact and its ability to engage with a wide-ranging audience on current events and political issues.
Ben Shapiro’s success with his podcast reflects a broader trend in media consumption, where audiences are increasingly turning to digital platforms for news and commentary. The show’s ability to attract such a large listenership speaks to Shapiro’s skill in connecting with his audience and providing content that resonates with conservative listeners.
If the trainee pilot was piloting the helicopter and the other two were monitoring her actions, it sounds like someone was not doing their job. Three people missed seeing the other plane? The tower asked the pilot, “do you see the plane” – which was too late.
Question: Why did the tower ask the plane to change lanes at the last minute?
Why Wasn’t the Crashed Potomac Black Hawk’s “ADS-B” Tracker Turned On?
Nothing is confirmed yet, and the NTSB is still working to understand the specifics of the crash. Even the use of the ADS-B is still under investigation.
Investigators have revealed that the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 over the Potomac River was flying with its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system turned off. The turned-off ADS-B is possibly another contributing factor to a crash that was the deadliest in U.S. aviation since 2001.
What Is an ADS-B?
The ADS-B is, essentially, a system that broadcasts an aircraft’s positions to others, allowing for easy and nuanced tracking of the aircraft. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the ADS-B “is an advanced surveillance technology that combines an aircraft’s positioning source, aircraft avionics, and a ground infrastructure to create an accurate surveillance interface between aircraft and ATC.” Pertinently, the ADS-B “is more precise than radar.”
ADS-B consists of two distinct functions. The first is ADS-B Out. The Second is ADS-B In. The Out function occasionally broadcasts information about the aircraft, including identification, position, altitude, and velocity, allowing ATC and other aircraft to see the transmitting aircraft in real-time. The In function, meanwhile, receives and processes the information that other aircraft transmit, giving the receiving pilots improved situational awareness.
Black Hawk in DC crash had safety system off, investigators find
What it all means, with respect to the Potomac collision, is that had the Black Hawk’s ADS-B been turned on, American Airlines Flight 5342 would have been more likely to have been aware of the Black Hawk’s location, reducing the likelihood of a collision.
Of course, the investigation is still ongoing, and it is unlikely to conclude that the turned-off ADS-B was solely responsible for the collision. But the disclosure raises questions and further suggests that the tragedy could have been avoided. Why Was the ADS-B Turned Off?
Senator Ted Cruz, emerging from a closed-door meeting between the Senate Commerce Committee (which oversees the airline industry) and the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), proposed that the ADS-B should have been on.
“Unless there was a compelling national security reason for turning it off, that does not seem justified and in this instance, this was a training mission so there was no national security reason for ADS-B to be turned off,” Cruz said.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs while flying a Black Hawk over Iraq in 2004, also had questions about the ADS-B. “What we don’t know…whether or not the helicopter actually had their ADS-B Out turned on,” she said. “It sounds like it might not have been turned on, but the Army was very clear that the equipment was actually installed in the aircraftAn Ongoing Investigation
Nothing is confirmed yet. The NTSB is still working to understand the specifics of the crash. Even the use of the ADS-B is still under investigation.
“The NTSB will seek to determine if the system was present and turned on – and if not, why not – and whether its use might have helped avoid the accident, though it appears there was enough data that the danger of the situation should have been clear, regardless,” CBS reported.
Tucker Carlson had already unearthed proof back in 2018 that the Obama administration had placed a new emphasis on diversity over traditional hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration.
President Donald Trump suggested during a news briefing Thursday that the crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 with an Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C., may have had something to do with the lowering of standards for air traffic controllers that occurred first during the Obama administration and later during President Joe Biden’s time in office.
In June 2018, then-Fox News host Carlson covered the topic, saying, “The Obama administration pressured the FAA to meet abstract diversity goals. Now nobody bothered to explain why diversity is a relevant criterion for air traffic controllers. No one will explain it now.”
Carlson explained that the FAA added a biographical questionnaire to the air traffic controller application process, which he said gave more points to would-be controllers who lacked a scientific background or who had been unemployed for the previous three years than they did to licensed pilots.
“In other words, the FAA actively searched for unqualified air traffic controllers. That is insane, and they knew it was insane when they did it, but they did it anyway,” he said.
In an email Carlson said he obtained, the executive who created the biographical questionnaire “admits that the test he devised has nothing to do with finding the best air traffic controllers. If you want good air traffic controllers, find people with experience. That was his advice. The FAA ignored this, and used the biographical screen anyway. … Compared to diversity, your safety meant nothing to them.”
The Washington Times editorial board also wrote about the topic in a February 2024 opinion piece following near misses at Reagan National, where Wednesday’s crash took place, and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The Times cited a 2013 FAA document titled “Controller Hiring by the Numbers,” which asked, “How much of a change in job performance is acceptable to achieve what diversity goals?”
The news outlet noted in 2012 that the FAA temporarily halted hiring of new controllers and replaced its race-blind hiring rules with a “Biographical Assessment” stratagem intended to hire more minorities.
Playing four or more sports in high school was worth 5 points in the survey, while holding a pilot’s license only earned an applicant 2 points.
“More than 3,000 top-performing, motivated applicants lost out because they weren’t members of this ethnic club,” the Times said.
Applicants who had scored well in the AT-SAT, which tests aptitude to be an air traffic controller, but not under the new “Biographical Assessment” sued
“After Congress forced the FAA to drop the quiz in 2018, many former applicants reapplied and have since become controllers. Their careers were set back several years for no good reason,” the Times said.
In 2018, Carlson interviewed aviation attorney and former air traffic controller Michael Pearson, who represented plaintiffs in a suit against the FAA in 2015 on the new hiring criteria.
Pearson recounted, “In late 2011, early 2012, members of the National Black Controllers Association had a meeting with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Jesse Jackson, and some high-level [Department of Transportation] and FAA officials. Michael Huerta [then head of the FAA] was part of those meetings. And right after that meeting, the FAA put an immediate hold on hiring. They stopped hiring.”
He verified what both Carlson and the Times reported regarding the biographical questionnaire: That it did not test actual aptitude and background to be a good air traffic controller.
“The creator actually notified the FAA of that, and they used it anyway. In effect, that test punished people with any aviation knowledge, any air traffic control experience, any aviation experience, any science experience,” Pearson said.
The attorney told Fox News Thursday night regarding theAmerican Airlines crash, “This is a preventable disaster. The system has been under attack through the DEI and the FAA bowing to wokeness since 2010 — since the Obama administration.”
“The lack of staffing is directly attributable to the Obama administration,” he argued.
The cause of Wednesday’s crash is still under investigation, but one thing is certain: A return to common sense under Trump must — and no doubt, will — mean merit and ability will once again be the criteria for hiring air traffic controllers.
TODAY
kommonsentsjane 