At 3:54 p.m. today, the FAA issued an alarming notice ordering a nationwide ground stop of all flights due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.” This was only the third time in American history that this has happened, including on September 11, 2001. Almost two hours later, the president finally broke his silence and shared an important message with the American people: “MAKE OUR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP.” As of the writing of this post, late Friday night, Donald Trump has still not publicly addressed the nationwide aviation emergency that happened today under his watch.
When the ground stop was officially ordered, more than 3,500 planes were already in the air, and approximately 11,000 flights carrying more than one and a half million passengers were scheduled to depart. In an instant, departure screens at airports across the United States began flashing bright red, flight-canceled banners. There were stories of families sitting on terminal floors, pilots forced to hold passengers for hours on the runway, and by the end of the night, nearly 5,000 flights had been canceled and 10,000 more delayed.
Because of the threats that our country has been facing, the first question on many of our minds was whether this was a cyberattack. It was not an unreasonable fear either, because just four days ago, France publicly accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of sabotaging food refrigeration systems at more than 700 retail locations, sparking at least 15 fires and causing tens of millions of euros in damage. We have known for a long time about these types of threats coming from Iran, and the FBI and CISA have been tracking Iranian-backed hackers targeting programmable logic controllers in U.S. government facilities, water systems, and energy infrastructure since at least March of this year. So it was no surprise that when every single flight in America suddenly stopped, the thought of a cyberattack on our aviation systems was one of the first things that came to mind.
Many also questioned whether this had anything to do with the new AI system that the Department of Transportation just started implementing at all 22 Air Route Traffic Control Centers just three days ago. This wasn’t just a simple system update, and the backstory of how it came to be is troubling. The system, called SMART, was built by a Boston startup called Air Space Intelligence under a 12-year contract worth up to $875 million. The contract was awarded by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s own department. In March of this year, Air Space Intelligence donated $12,500 to the congressional campaign of Michael Alfonso, who happens to be Sean Duffy’s twenty-six-year-old son-in-law, who just won the election to fill Duffy’s old congressional seat in Wisconsin. In October, more than two dozen members of Congress wrote to Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford asking them to pause the SMART rollout until someone could explain how it was tested, what AI models it runs on, how it integrates with existing systems, and whether controllers were trained on it. The controllers’ union said it was left out of design and testing entirely. The FAA’s response was to roll out the system nationwide just 32 days later.
For their part, Air Space Intelligence released a statement tonight denying any connection, saying that “The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system.” Duffy agreed and said that there was “no possible way” SMART was involved. But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who joined Duffy for a press conference just hours ago, said officials are looking into incompatibilities between older equipment and newer technology currently being installed, which is, of course, exactly what SMART is. As Mullin said that, Duffy was seen shaking his head and looking dismayed. When a reporter asked Mullin whether the AI system played a role, Mullin did not answer the question; instead, he deflected and insisted AI should be called “SI,” for “super intelligence.” In the middle of a national aviation crisis, the Secretary of Homeland Security, a plumbing company owner who was a United States senator for less than eight months, decided that was the right time to perform a loyalty ritual for the president by making sure to reprimand someone for not using their new marketing language to describe AI.
The other possibilities are that there was a known and potentially serious threat we are not being told about, or that they truly do not know what happened, which is concerning in its own way, or that the system just failed on its own because it is old. That is the explanation Duffy ultimately tried to push while he was standing with Mullin tonight at the White House press conference. “We have old switches, old routers,” he said. “We use 1980s little copper lines. It’s an old system that went down and went down everywhere. It got overloaded.” But when reporters asked him more questions about why 1980s equipment would suddenly become overwhelmed on an otherwise normal Friday afternoon, he did not have an answer. He could not explain what was different about today, and he could not say what specifically failed or why. “We’re still working on the details of what went wrong today,” he said.
NBC’s Monica Alba asked maybe the most important question: If the Trump administration has been in office for almost two years, and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress and still do, why was this not fixed? Duffy did not answer the question. Instead, he asked her which network she was from and attacked her, doing exactly what Trump and his administration always do when members of the media ask questions they either don’t know the answers to or just don’t want to answer. What he should have said was the truth, especially about how Elon Musk’s DOGE team tried to fire air traffic controllers and made other very reckless cuts without much thought for the consequences.
Seeing these two up here representing our country and knowing that they are responsible for such enormous responsibilities is simply terrifying. Donald Trump appointed someone best known as a cast member on MTV’s The Real World: Boston back in 1997. He went on to serve in Congress and then was handed the Department of Transportation by Donald Trump, without deep expertise in aviation or infrastructure. He was not chosen for competency, he was chosen because he was loyal. That is the only qualification that matters in this administration.
Markwayne Mullin, who is running the Department of Homeland Security, comes from an equally unqualified background. He took over his family’s plumbing business before becoming a member of Congress. He was only in that position for a short period before becoming the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Then there is Todd Blanche, who was not in the room, whose qualifications include being Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer during his New York trial. He went from defending Trump to running the entire Department of Justice after being appointed by Trump.
We can’t forget Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic and science denier, who was put in charge of public health. The result: the United States has lost its measles elimination status for the first time since it was declared in 2000, just today. At least 10 people have died from measles this year alone, including babies too young to be vaccinated, dying from a disease we eliminated a generation ago because the people running our public health system do not believe in the science that made that elimination possible. We all remember this past summer when we could not even safely eat fresh fruits or vegetables for fear of getting a parasite that was giving thousands of people explosive diarrhea. The confidence we are supposed to have in the basic systems that keep this country running, like the planes, food, and the public health infrastructure, is being shattered by people who were never qualified to lead those agencies in the first place. Maybe the best way to describe what is happening is that if you hire a bunch of clowns, you will get a circus.
Tonight, standing in the White House briefing room after every flight in America had been grounded for hours, Sean Duffy made a statement that was more accurate than he probably intended. “We don’t deserve this, America.”
He is right. We do not deserve this America. We do not deserve an America where the aviation system collapses because it is being run by reality television stars. We do not deserve an America where babies die of measles because the man running public health says that vaccines are dangerous, even though he chose to vaccinate his own babies.
We do not deserve an America where the people entrusted with keeping us safe are more concerned with protecting the president than protecting the American people. We do not deserve this America. Sean Duffy is absolutely right about that.
But here is what Sean Duffy does not seem to understand: the American people already said they don’t deserve this just 10 days ago when they flipped the House and the Senate. Today we were given official word that they are also sending Lauren Boebert home even after she fled to the most Republican district she could find in Colorado, where she lost to a retired two-star Navy rear admiral named Eileen Laubacher. They sent a message to every single person in this administration who was hired for loyalty instead of competence: we are done with you.
To my fellow Americans and to the world destabilized and harmed by Donald Trump, we all deserve better. We have always deserved better, and come January, we will finally have a Congress that can begin holding this administration accountable and working to rebuild what has been broken. That is why I still have hope for America. And you should, too.
I’ll see you tomorrow,
Heather
PS. You can make a significant difference right now by subscribing to my Substack. There’s a free option that lets you see the images and links to sources I can’t include here. Your support helps me cover more ground and keep telling the truth about the lies and destruction unfolding in this country.
This commentary represents my personal opinions and analysis of matters of public concern, informed by publicly available information. Any references to individuals constitute opinion and commentary protected under the First Amendment.
Picture of the day: We walked down to the beach today just to watch the waves for a couple of minutes. They were huge! The promised rainy season has started, and the talk of the town here in San Diego today was the thunder and lightning that woke most of us up early this morning. As I’m writing this now, the next round of rain has arrived. As we say in Southern California, “We needed this.”
Sources:
Secretary Mullin and Secretary Duffy Brief Members of the Press on the FAA Ground Stop: YouTube Video
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-statement-nationwide-ground-stop
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-issues-nationwide-ground-stop/
https://www.npr.org/2026/11/13/nx-s1-6040403/faa-nationwide-groundstop-airports
https://abcnews.com/US/nationwide-ground-stop-ordered-airports-faa/story?id=138121848
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/us-flights-grounded/
https://www.cnn.com/2026/11/13/health/us-measles-elimination-status
https://www.ksl.com/article/51644051/wisconsin-infant-is-third-measles-related-death-this-week-in-us
https://www.freshproduce.com/who-we-are/commentary/cyclospora-faqs
https://coloradonewsline.com/2026/11/13/laubacher-defeats-boebert-4th-district/
These clown's malevolence is hardly necessary when their inept incompetence can fuck everything up. Everywhere you look is decay and corruption. Tick tock mf's, your time has come.
Thank you Heather. Another example of not even a circus but a broken down carnival full of clowns with soiled foam red noses.. no one getting on any rides or buying food cause food poisoning is but hours away…
The Felon’s regime presser where Doofus-Duffy & Schoolyard-Bully-Mullin doing what they do best….
Blamed Dems
Blamed Congress
Blamed the system itself - “it’s antiquated the switches and routers” - “the new stuff overwhelmed the old stuff”
Demanded $50 Billion (Congress already approved $12.5 Billion)
Insisted it wasn't A.I. that is being rolled out
Still really don't know what happened
Attacked a female reporter when asking a smart question
Praised their boss - “he’s a builder”
...and claim they're the heroes
Little Marco wearing his oversized Florsheim shoes giving a speech at the Federalist Society Lawyers Convention.. btw he is the U.S. National Security Advisor and U.S. Secretary of State
Felon has spent between $1.6 billion and $2.3 billion in taxpayer funds since 2025 on ballroom construction, rebranding, Qatar aircraft retrofits, and promotional stuff.
The Felon down the hall thumbs banging out these messages…. “MAKE OUR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP” and thanking “Governor Jeff Landry for his outstanding leadership, Coast Guard, Law Enforcement and First Responders”
Is Felonious Delusional Don aware that ALL flights were grounded for hours…smh..please get grandpa a sweater and make sure his name tag is affixed..
“…Doo-doo-doodle-oodle-oo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doodle-oodle-oo-doo-doo-doo…”
This new Congress can’t get sworn in soon enough.. make sure y’all have your sh*t together you’ve made two errors this week.. hit the ground running, don’t let off the pedal…