The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by the bold leadership of Elon Musk, is on a mission to uncover waste and potential fraud in federal spending. It’s a mission that Americans on both sides of the aisle generally support, but the left, with the help of the media, is intent on scandalizing DOGE's efforts to undermine Trump’s presidency.
Rather than reading the writing on the wall, the Associated Press seems intent on peddling hysteria.
“The Trump administration has begun firing several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees, upending staff on a busy air travel weekend and just weeks after a January fatal midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport,” the AP reported earlier this week.
Probationary workers were targeted in late-night emails Friday notifying them they had been fired, David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said in a statement.
The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press. The air traffic controller was not authorized to talk to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
[…]
Other FAA employees who were fired were working on an urgent and classified early warning radar system the Air Force had announced in 2023 for Hawaii to detect incoming cruise missiles, through a program that was in part funded by the Defense Department. It’s one of several programs that the FAA’s National Airspace System Defense Program manages that involve radars providing longer-range detection around the country’s borders.
Due to the nature of their work, staff in that office typically provide an extensive knowledge transfer before retiring to make sure no institutional knowledge is lost, said Charles Spitzer-Stadtlander, one of the employees in that branch who was terminated.
The Hawaii radar and the FAA defense program office working on it are “about protecting national security,” Spitzer-Stadtlander said. “I don’t think they even knew what NDP does, they just thought, oh no big deal, he just works for the FAA.”
The author of the article even claimed that an FAA employee was “harassed on Facebook” by DOGE before getting fired. It’s a cute story, isn’t it? The problem is that it is false. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt debunked the story on X:
More fake news from the @AP
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 17, 2025
1. DOGE doesn’t even have a Facebook page
2. No air traffic controllers nor any professionals who perform safety critical functions were terminated https://t.co/vhrusRu3NS
The AP updated the article to include a statement from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who pointed out that the department fired fewer than 400 FAA employees and “Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.”
Yet the story remains online, complete with the implications of a reckless firing spree at the FAA mere weeks after the fatal crash at Reagan National Airport. While polls show Americans generally support making the government leaner and more efficient, the left, with the help of the media, is intent on stopping Trump from doing it by pushing the idea that every government worker is essential, and anytime someone gets fired, it makes us less safe.
The Associated Press recently got its knickers in a twist over the administration banning it from Air Force One and the Oval Office. But after perpetuating an alarmist and factually questionable narrative to undermine the administration, it essentially proved that it deserved to be banned, didn’t it?
In the end, we deserve a government that is efficient, transparent, and focused on serving their interests — not one bogged down by unnecessary bureaucracy. We must view the exaggerated claims about the consequences of layoffs for what they are: a desperate attempt by the mainstream media to assert a narrative of chaos where none exists. As Trump’s administration continues to prioritize fiscal responsibility, it becomes increasingly clear that the real danger lies in the media’s narratives, not the layoffs themselves.
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