FAA orders nationwide ground stop for every US flight. Then the Transportation Secretary asks for $50 billion—MTG claims she knows the real cause

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a nationwide ground stop for every flight in the United States on Friday afternoon, The Hill reports. This event marks a rare occurrence, as the agency has only taken such a drastic measure during the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and once before in 2023.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy held a press conference to explain that a temporary telecommunications outage triggered the shutdown. He claimed the system became overloaded with data, which forced officials to shut it down completely. During this same briefing, Duffy asked for 50 billion dollars to modernize air traffic control systems. He argued that the funds would support new hardware, software, and telecommunication upgrades.

Duffy directly addressed Congress during his speech. He said, “I want 50 billion dollars.” He also added, “Let’s finish this job: new hardware, new software, new telecommunication.” Duffy further stated, “Give President Trump, give Duffy the money. Let them finish this job so we don’t have to do a press conference at 8:30 at night ever again.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also spoke at the conference

Mullin noted that there is no indication of a cyberattack or any other nefarious activity at this time. He did clarify that officials will not rule anything out yet.

Marjorie Taylor Greene took to X to share her thoughts on the situation. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Duffy and Mullin of using the ground stop as a reason to demand more taxpayer money. She described their joint press conference as “unreal b****.”

Greene wrote in her post, “It doesn’t matter to any of them that the US Congress and every administration has spent like 15 trillion dollars on foreign wars over the past 25 years but yeah you guys gotta fork over 50 billion more dollars so they can finally fix something in America.” She also claimed the outage was obviously a cyberattack, though she provided no evidence to support that idea.

The FAA recently introduced an artificial intelligence tool known as the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories program. This software debuted in the Washington, D.C. area and cost the department 875 million dollars. Air Space Intelligence, the company that created this tool, released a statement on Friday night to clarify its position. They denied any link to the ground stop, a point that Duffy also mentioned during the briefing.

Representatives for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment regarding the situation.