President Donald Trump said that pilots may not even be needed with the new proposed air traffic control systems.
The comment was made in an apparent gaffe in which the president then doubled down upon while speaking to reporters on Thursday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared the video clip on social media Thursday afternoon, thanking the president for supporting the air traffic control (ATC) system overhaul.
“[The FAA] had all of these different technologies, some of them 50 years old, and they’re trying to mesh them in,” Trump said in the clip. “They end up spending twice the money they should have spent—you could have bought a whole new system.”
Thank you @POTUS!
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 8, 2025
We’ll fix our air traffic control system and deliver for the American people! pic.twitter.com/vMCVnCFF9R
“The new equipment is unbelievable at what it does,” he continued. “You don’t even—well, I was going to say something, but in my opinion you always need pilots, [and] I want pilots. But you wouldn’t even have to have pilots. This system is so incredible what they can do.”
Toward the end of the video, Trump stated that before he became president, his pilots would “use the system of another country,” when flying him inside the U.S.
“They were just saying, ‘Our system doesn’t work, sir,’ and I said, ‘Boy, that’s pretty sad,’” Trump stated.
It’s unclear what Trump meant by “the system” his pilots would use.
Trump also said that the previous administration awarded “hundreds” of different contractors to focus on upgrading individual components of the ATC system, from working on satellites to excavation work.
