Just after former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Donald Trump for threatening air traffic controllers, who arent being paid for their work during the government shutdown, Trump confusingly fired back at Buttigieg. Buttigieg then responded on social media, calling out Trumps stream-of-consciousness rant as not being based on reality.Yesterday, Trump raged on social media about supposedly unpatriotic air traffic controllers: For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU. Related Pete Buttigieg nails the real reason why Donald Trumps ballroom is so troubling Buttigieg responded: The President wouldnt last five minutes as an air traffic controller and after everything theyve been through and the way this administration has treated them from Day One he has no business sh**ting on them now.A reporter asked Trump about the delayed and canceled flightsa result of staffing shortages brought on by the shutdownat the Oval Office yesterday. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Can you guarantee to Americans that travel is going to go back to normal once the government is she asked.Travel? Trump responded. Itll be better than normal, and you know why? Itll be much better than normal because were buying the most sophisticated avionics [sic] and, you know, technology for our control towers, and we didnt have that.We had a guy named Buttigieg. Boot-edge-edge, they say, is the best way. Just say two edges like off the edge of a cliff, which is where they were taking us, by the way, he said as the people who work for him laughed at his joke. Then Trump started rambling less coherently: Boot-edge-edge was the secretary of transportation and he spent billions of dollars trying to patch together our air control, our air traffic control system, which was a conglomeration of all different sytems and all different cities, he spent- they had hundreds of countries, hundreds of companies working on it, and they spent like billions of dollars and when they turned it on it didnt work, it didnt even work a little bit, thats why you had a helicopter crashing into an airplane that if we had a great system, bells and whistles would have started going off.Its hard to evaluate Trumps claims because many arent complete thoughts. The U.S. aviation system achieved its lowest rate of flight cancellations under Buttigieg in 2023. The helicopter crash Trump referred to happened when Trump was president and Sean Duffy was the transportation secretary. It was likely caused by staffing issues and a longstanding problem with shared airspace with a nearby military airfield, not bells and whistles that should have sounded. Other than mostly pronouncing my name right, everything he said was wrong, Buttigieg said in a video responding to Trump. He just made a bunch of s**t up about air traffic control. Buttigieg explained that the air traffic control system was in pretty rough shape by the end of Trumps first term. Buttigieg said the Biden administration launched a long-term plan to update the system, which is still being implemented, and that Trump is now passing off as his idea.Buttigieg said that the biggest issue the system is facing is a shortage of air traffic controllers, which is why its disgraceful for Trump to attack those controllers during the shutdown.So why would the president be picking a fight with air traffic controllers today of all days? Buttigieg said. Probably its to change the subject from how he and Republicans are increasing your health insurance premiums on purpose, right now, and how he has totally failed on his promise to make everyday life more affordable.Buttigieg was referring to the Senate continuing resolution, which passed with almost all Republicans voting for it, along with seven Democrats and one independent. The deal seeks to reopen the federal government without extending health care subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. The House will vote on it soon. Why is Trump going after America's air traffic controllers, today of all days? It's one more way to distract from his decision to increase your health insurance premiums." Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2025-11-11T03:45:01.483ZSubscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.