The following story is a piece of opinion and analysis.
Trust the Trump administration to puff out its chest with bravado anytime one or more of its members accidentally slings hot grease all over the kitchen.
Case in point: the Federal Aviation Administration’s Tuesday night closure of the airspace above El Paso International Airport. You remember that, right? The restriction that threw Texas air travel into chaos because it was supposed to be in place for 10 days, yet was lifted just 10 hours later?
An hour after lifting the restrictions, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, who oversees the FAA, explained the unusual closure was triggered by Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace. Ooh, scary.
“The FAA and [Department of Defense] acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” he blustered.
Except …
Subsequent accounts by the New York Times, the Associated Press and other media outlets indicate the U.S. military has been tinkering lately with laser weapons to bring down drones, and there have been discussions about testing said gadgets at the nearby army base, Fort Bliss.
Even though the FAA reportedly expressed concerns about the tests, Pentagon officials approved Customs and Border Patrol earlier this week to target an object they thought was a drone, according to those media investigations.
Instead, it was a party balloon.
Yes, you heard right: El Paso International, which handles more than 4 million air travelers annually, was shut down because of a fucking party balloon.
In the words of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nice shootin’, Tex!”
It would all be a laugh riot if the airport closure hadn’t resulted in real pain for real people.
Because of the closure, surgical equipment being delivered for city hospitals didn’t show up and an unspecified number of medical evacuation flights were also forced to divert to Las Cruces, New Mexico, more than 40 miles away, El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson said at a Wednesday morning press conference.
“This should have never happened,” Johnson added, according to the Texas Tribune. “You cannot restrict airspace over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership. That failure to communicate is unacceptable.”
The El Paso debacle points to the apparent inability of anyone inside the Trump administration to speak frankly and truthfully to the American public.
Could it be that Duffy — a former congressman, Fox News contributor and one-time reality star — came into his current job with no apparent experience in transportation management? Or the fact that Trump has surrounded himself with incompetent enablers who are terrified to admit it when they drop the ball? Or that lying and incompetence have become so commonplace for this White House that this is just another chapter in our perpetually botched state of affairs?
Likely it’s a combination of all three, but certainly another clear indication that the Trump White House is utterly incapable of shooting straight.
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