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Donald J. Trump may be a draft-dodger, but he's at the front line in the war on aviation safety—a war declared by a Republican president four decades ago.Last Tuesday—on his second day in office—Trump fired the entire membership of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee as part of his demolition of the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS, of course, is now headed by former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Although best known for killing a defenseless puppy, Noem's signature accomplishment in her previous job was launching the state's memorable antidrug slogan: "Meth. We're On it." I wish I had made that up. That's right: Trump fired the committee overseeing aviation safety and hired Kristi Noem. Does that make you feel secure, Homeland? You might wonder why Trump thought eliminating people who keep the skies safe was a good idea. To the extent that Donald Trump has thoughts, they're not original. His anti-immigrant rhetoric, for example, owes a debt to a prominent German political leader of the 1930s and 40s. And his decision to axe air safety advisors calls to mind the wrecking ball that Ronald Reagan wielded on August 5, 1981, when he fired 11,345 air traffic controllers in one fell swoop. For decades, anti-union Republicans have hailed Reagan's draconian response to the strike by members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) as the beginning of the end of the American labor movement. But it was also the beginning of a crisis in air safety. Joseph A. McCartin, a Georgetown professor and author of Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike That Changed America, writes, "Reagan's decision to ban all strikers meant that it took years for the system to come back to its prestrike staffing levels." That system is still reeling. According to a 2023 report, "Ensuring adequate staffing and training for air traffic controllers—an essential part of maintaining the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS)—has been a challenge for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), especially at the Nation's most critical facilities." Who issued this alarming report? The U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General. As you may have heard, Trump purged over a dozen Inspectors General in an overnight massacre last Friday. Department of Transportation Inspector General Eric Soskin was among them. There you go again.
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