A top Trump advisor said he will take a “new interest” in the airline industry after he and his wife experienced routine delays.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair has been complaining online about delays he and his wife have experienced this week while flying American Airlines.
“Today, American Airlines delays me 2.5 hours because someone failed to notice empty hydraulic fluid before it was time to go down the runway. Yesterday, they apparently forgot to BOOK A PILOT for my wife’s flight,” he alleged.
“I’m going to take a new interest in the airline industry,” he continued.
Hydraulic issues can come up during pre-departure checks or during engine startup, so a delay there is not exactly unusual.
It’s unclear if American Airlines “forgot” to assign a pilot to the flight, as Blair suggests. Flight crew assignments can often be derailed by missing a flight due to a previous delay or calling out sick.
In a follow-up post, Blair said he has always been dissatisfied with the airline industry.
“I’ve already heard some great ideas from Members of Congress and learned a lot since yesterday. We’ll see what ideas come forward!” he posted.
Former Biden administration Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit back at Blair’s complaints.
“You could begin by restoring the passenger rights work you rolled back - and then seriously enforce airline laws, like we did. Trust me, it gets results!” he posted.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
In a statement to the Beast, American Airlines apologized to Blair. “We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans, and we apologize for the delays experienced by Mr. and Mrs. Blair,” the airline said.
MAGA has been having nonstop meltdowns about airlines and airports since Trump assumed the presidency—at which point the 79-year-old’s pick to lead the Department of Transportation, Sean Duffy, took charge of the agency.
South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace has been feuding with the Charleston International Airport since she had a public, profanity-filled meltdown there late last year. She has posted on social media about the airport incident more than 100 times.
The airport has said Mace she engaged in “irate” behavior that left airport staff “visibly upset,” and concluded that she turned a “minor miscommunication” into “a spectacle.”
Duffy, who is tasked with enforcing airline regulations and standards, has railed against airline passengers for their choice of clothing, whining about people wearing pajamas on commercial flights.
“People dress up like they’re going to bed when they fly,” Duffy complained, as he told people to “dress up, bring civility back to travel.”
The transit secretary’s “Make Travel Family Friendly Again” initiative pushed to ensure the U.S. returns to “an era where we didn’t wear our pajamas to the airport.”
The push to get people dressed up at the airport also included a proposal to add mini-gyms. “Maybe I want a workout area where people might get some blood flowing doing some pull-ups or some step-ups in the airport,” the transit secretary said in a December press conference.
Duffy’s daughter, Evita Duffy-Alfonso, called TSA unconstitutional after agents gave her a pat-down that she requested so as not to expose her fetus to radiation.
“The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job,” she complained.
Modern body scanners are widely considered safe for pregnant women. Duffy-Alfonso also admitted she arrived at the airport just about an hour before her flight, despite knowing she would require extra security at her request.
