Donald Trump blames the Biden administration for the air traffic gridlock in the US

Donald Trump blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for the massive disruption to air traffic in the United States, after a malfunction led on Friday to the temporary ban on takeoffs and disrupted domestic and international travel.

In his first public comments on the matter, the American president described the Biden administration’s management of aviation as a “disaster.” Trump claimed, in a message posted on Truth Social, that everything the former administration had touched “went wrong” and that significant sums had been spent on an already outdated and faulty system.

The president called on Congress to quickly approve funding to modernize the air traffic control system. Trump stated that his administration has the plan and expertise necessary to carry out the project and criticized the fact that much of the current infrastructure is approximately 50 years old.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asked Congress on Friday for $50 billion to modernize the systems. Trump said that work had begun, but that the project must be completed in its entirety, not in stages, accusing the Biden administration of delaying the process by years.

More than 14,000 flights were canceled on Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday morning, approximately 900 more cancellations had been reported.