It seems no one is immune to the chaos unfolding at airports across the country—not even President Donald Trump’s former attorney general.
Bill Barr, who served for nearly two years during Trump’s first presidential term, was spotted stuck in an agonizingly long TSA line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Wednesday, as staffing shortages tied to a partial government shutdown severely strained security checkpoints.
“Among those standing in the 3-hour TSA security line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport is Former Attorney General Bill Barr,” CBS reporter Nicole Sganga captioned a photo of Barr, who also previously served as attorney general under George H. W. Bush, on X.
Trump’s attack dogs quickly seized on the moment to ridicule Barr, 75, who became a target of the former president after saying he found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
“It warms my heart to see deep state Bill Barr looking miserable in a TSA line,” MAGA mouthpiece Benny Johnson wrote on X.
“He could use the steps,” far-right commentator Jack Posobiec piled on.
The travel meltdown comes as roughly 61,000 TSA employees have gone without pay since the partial government shutdown began in mid-February—the third such disruption within a year amid a congressional stalemate. So far, at least 400 officers have quit, with absences running at record levels.
In Houston, where Barr was spotted, 41 percent of TSA workers didn’t show up for work on Tuesday.
Barr isn’t the only one going without special treatment. Delta Air Lines announced Tuesday that it will cease operating its special congressional desk service—which assists lawmakers and staffers—until the shutdown ends, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.
“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” a company spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.”
The specialty services include booking discounted travel, reserving same-day tickets for congressional votes, and making last-minute ticketing changes.
The airport chaos has also disrupted critical federal work. On Monday, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said a federal investigator racing to examine the scene of a deadly New York air crash was delayed for three hours in a TSA line at the Texas airport.
Meanwhile, as Trump continues to urge Republicans to abandon negotiations with Democrats to reopen the government, his administration has deployed agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to 14 airports in cities including New York, Atlanta, and Houston to “help support” staff.
Photos circulating from airports across the country, however, show ICE agents lingering in groups, sitting at cafes with coffee in hand, and drifting through terminals with lunch bags as passengers continue to stew in long lines.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Barr’s representatives for comment.
