'I Thought MAGA Was Supposed To Be America First': Marjorie Taylor Greene Blasts Trump After FAA Ground Stop

Former US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene criticised President Donald Trump's commitment to his 'America First' agenda on Saturday, 14 November, after a nationwide Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ground stop disrupted air travel across the United States.

The FAA halted departures on Friday after telecommunications problems affected communications and radar information used by air traffic controllers. The order was lifted at 8:15 p.m. Eastern Time, but thousands of cancellations and delays left passengers facing continued disruption.

FAA Ground Stop Fuels Greene's America First Criticism

Greene used the aviation shutdown to challenge the administration's priorities, arguing that ageing domestic infrastructure had been neglected while money and political attention were directed towards foreign conflicts.

'This FAA ground stop and Gov response is the greatest case for America First policies,' she wrote on X. 'Not foreign wars first policies.'

She added: 'I thought MAGA was supposed to be America First with Trump leading the way to fix our problems at home.'

The former Republican representative also condemned the administration's Friday briefing. In a separate post, she said Americans had accepted 'the total garbage' presented by officials, while pointing to federal debt, overseas military spending and infrastructure she described as 'falling apart.'

Those comments were Greene's political assessment. No evidence presented by officials established that spending on foreign conflicts caused the telecommunications failure.

California Governor Gavin Newsom also criticised Trump's public visibility during the disruption. He wrote on Friday that the president 'was MIA today' while passengers were stranded. His comments came despite the administration's account that Trump was receiving updates.

FAA Ground Stop Raises Questions Over Ageing Equipment

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday that the disruption appeared to have begun during maintenance by L3Harris Technologies, an FAA contractor replacing old copper telecommunications connections with fibre-optic equipment at a remote location.

Duffy said a router involved in the work began overwhelming other routers with connection attempts, disrupting communication and radar feeds. Officials had not determined whether a contractor installation error or faulty equipment was responsible. L3Harris has provided the FAA's telecommunications network for more than two decades.

At Friday's White House briefing, Duffy blamed longstanding underinvestment in air traffic control infrastructure and called for further congressional funding. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin defended the president's response, saying Trump had provided leadership and allowed cabinet officials to manage the situation.

Duffy said he and Mullin had spoken with Trump during the disruption. Separately, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy said he spoke to the president by telephone on Friday. Doocy reported that Trump suspected ageing equipment, rather than a cyberattack, was behind the outage, although the cause remained under investigation.

The administration said the ground stop was ordered as a safety precaution and that flights resumed after systems were tested. Officials cautioned that airlines would need time to reposition aircraft and crews.

Meanwhile, Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said on Friday that her team was in contact with the FAA. She said lawmakers would examine the technology used for communications between aircraft and controllers, including primary and backup frequencies.