Nov. 12, 2025

The Airports Are About to Get Even Worse

Show Notes
Transcript

America’s skies are in meltdown as the shutdown leaves air traffic controllers unpaid, flights grounded, and Trump promising mystery bonuses from “some place.” Laura Ingraham actually does journalism for once, grilling him on housing, China, and chaos in the skies. And in corporate land, Paramount tells workers “five days a week or hit the eject button,” and six hundred take the parachute.

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WEBVTT

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Caalaroka Shark Media from the airport where you have a

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seven hour delay, so you might as well listen to

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some AI written jokes. This is ballot, that's right, and

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once your plane leaves the gate, you're still number twenty

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seven to take off. Let's hit this. I'm Patrick Gutfield

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and buckle up for today's edition of Airplane the Government

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shut Down Remix. We're not just talking about a government

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shutdown anymore. We're talking about a full blown aviation apocalypse

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that makes planes, trains, and automobiles look like a travel brochure.

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Here's the brutal reality. Even if the government lifts flight

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restrictions immediately, airlines won't recover for days. It's like trying

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to untangle holiday lights after your toddler got involved, Messy, complicated,

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and probably ending with someone crying. The aviation world sending

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a message loud and clear. Our air traffic control system

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was already on life support before this shutdown. They've got

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a twelve point five billion dollar modernization budget, and yet

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we're operating an air traffic control system that feels more

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vintage than cutting edge. Let's break down the math. Fourteen

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thousand air traffic controllers are doing the work of seventeen thousand.

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They're working longer, harder, and oh yeah, for free. Some

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are picking up second jobs just to survive. It's like

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asking a surgeon to perform emergency operations while also working

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the night shift at a convenience store. The FAA solution

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cut flights by four percent. That's government problem solving at

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its finest. It's like fixing a leaky roof by removing

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four percent of the house. The result, one in ten

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flights didn't take off this weekend. That's not a travel delay,

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that's a transportation meltdown. And Trump's response threaten air traffic

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controllers working without pay, then maybe just maybe cost them

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a ten thousand dollars bonus. It's like telling someone work

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for free and if you're really good, I might buy

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you dinner. Eventually, these controllers are showing up managing our skies,

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juggling second jobs just to make rent. And Trump's response,

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I'm not happy with you. Classic management technique. Nothing says

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leadership like criticizing people working for zero dollars. When asked

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how he'd pay these mythical bonuses, Trump's response is peak Trump.

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I don't know, I'll get it. From someplace, because government

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funding is basically like finding loose change in the couch cushions.

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Laura Ingraham had President Trump on Fox News Monday night,

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and for once, he didn't get the usual softball interview

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he's used to. Instead, Ingraham spent the entire segment asking

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him actual questions, and here's the shocking part following up

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when his answers made no sense. Before the interview even aired,

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there were warning signs. Ingraham posted a preview video on

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Facebook at five pm, filmed in the Oval office where

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she asked Trump about his beloved gold decorations. So these

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aren't from home Depot. That clip mysteriously didn't make it

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to air, which is probably for the best since internet

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sleuths previously claimed some of Trump's gold application looked suspiciously

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like fifty eight dollars items from home Depot that someone

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spray painted gold. Trump, for the record, insists you can't

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imitate gold, real gold. There's no paint that imitates gold,

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which would be news to literally every hardware store in America.

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But the real fireworks came when Ingraham started asking about policy.

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She brought up housing costs in the fact that the

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average age of first time home buyers is now forty

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years old. Trump immediately tried to deflect we inherited that

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you have to understand. Ingraham cut him off, let me

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get to the question, though. She then asked about his

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heavily criticized fifty year mortgage plan, noting there's been significant

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MAGA backlash to the idea of Americans taking five decades

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to own their homes. Trump's response, it's not even a

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big deal. I mean, you go from forty to fifty years.

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Ingraham corrected him, it's thirty to fifty years, and Trump

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pivoted to blaming Joe Biden and his lousy fed person

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Jerome Powell, who he noted is going to be gone

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in a few months. When Ingraham asked why people are

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anxious about the economy, Trump said, I don't know that

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they are saying that. I think polls are fake. We

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have the greatest economy we ever had. This is quite

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a statement, considering Republicans just got demolished in New Jersey

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and Virginia elections last week. Ingraham pressed him, do voters

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have the wrong perception of his economic claims or does

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the GOP need to do more to convince them. Trump

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went with his default setting. More than anything else, It's

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a con job by the Democrats costs her way down.

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Then came the segment about Trump's truth social post offering

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a ten thousand dollars bonus to air traffic controllers who

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kept working during the government shutdown. Ingraham pointed out, there

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are a lot of delays now, Sir. Trump said he

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was not happy when he saw people refusing to do

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unpaid work. Look, life is not so easy for anybody.

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Our country has never done better. We should not have

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had people leaving their jobs. Ingram asked the obvious question,

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where is that money coming from? Trump's answer, I don't know.

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I will get it from someplace. I always get the

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money from someplace, regardless. It doesn't matter. That's the president's

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fiscal policy. Everyone. I'll get it from someplace. It doesn't matter.

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The interview moved to foreign policy, with Ingraham citing a

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CNN report on China expanding missile facilities. China are not

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our friends, sir, she said. Trump replied, they don't want

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to mess around with us. Ingraham pushed back, they spy

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on us, they steal our intellectual property. Trump's counter argument,

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do you think the French are better. When Ingraham said ye,

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Trump replied, I'm not so sure. We've now reached the

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point where the president is defending China by suggesting France

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might be worse than Ingraham brought up foreign students, mentioning

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Trump's own figure of six hundred thousand Chinese students in America. Why, sir,

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is that a pro mega position when so many American

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kids want to go to school and there are places

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not for them, and these universities are getting rich off

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Chinese money. Trump said, without foreign students, you would have

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half the colleges in the United States go out of business.

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Ingraham's response, so what, Trump, I think that's a big deal.

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Ingraham said America was dependent on China to fund universities.

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Trump doubled down. You don't want to cut half of

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the people, half of the students from all over the

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world that are coming into our country, destroy our entire

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university and college system. I don't want to do that, Ingram.

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I wouldn't lose any sleep. Maga was my idea, Trump said,

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it was nobody else's idea. I know better than anybody else.

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Maga wants to see our country thrive. This is quite

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the contrast from Ingraham's visit to the Oval Office back

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in March, when she let Trump show off his coke

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button and complain about the rose garden needing to be

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paved over. Monday's interview saw her actually doing journalism, which

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must have been deeply confusing for everyone involved. Ingraham's been

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sharpening her approach lately. Last month, she interviewed House Speaker

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Mike Johnson about the government shutdown and called him out

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for making points that were not true. Apparently she's decided

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that holding politicians accountable applies even to the guy with

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the gold plated Oval Office who gets his money from someplace.

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Corporate America's latest genius strategy force employees back to the

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office or force them out. Paramounts CEO David Ellison just

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pulled off the corporate equivalent of a hostage negotiation. Come

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back fire five days a week, or take the buy out.

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Six hundred employees said, we choose door number two, walking

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away with a combined one hundred and eighty five million

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dollars in severance Ellison's justification, the most formative moments happen

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when you're a fly on the wall. Translation, I want

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you in uncomfortable pants, sitting in fluorescent lighting, listening today

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from accounting talk about his fantasy football league. This isn't

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a return to office policy. This is corporate culling disguised

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as team building. A recent survey shows twenty five percent

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of executives are basically using office mandates as a stealth

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layoff strategy. It's like corporate hunger games. May the workplace

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flexibility be never in your favor? Maybe these guys can

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get jobs as air traffic controllers. Portions of today's show

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were made with the help of AI