The short-lived decree that TSA PreCheck would be suspended during the government shutdown was never really about security or staffing, but a rogue move by a pair of incompetent government officials that even the Trump administration quickly overruled.
The Real Reason TSA PreCheck Was Nearly Shut Down
Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would temporarily suspend TSA PreCheck as part of the ongoing partial government shutdown, only to reverse course hours later after swift backlash and apparent intervention from the Trump administration.
According to The Washington Post, the idea originated with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and her adviser, Corey Landowski, before being quickly shelved. By late Sunday morning, TSA PreCheck lanes were operating normally at most airports, despite the initial announcement that the program would be halted nationwide. At many airports, local leaders ignored the edict to close PreCheck lanes.
The whiplash left travelers understandably confused, but the episode reveals something beyond purely bureaucratic incompetence: it shows how TSA PreCheck became a political pressure point rather than a serious operational proposal.
Suspending PreCheck Never Made Operational Sense
From a purely operational standpoint, suspending TSA PreCheck during a staffing crunch is counterproductive. PreCheck exists to move low risk travelers through security more quickly and with fewer officers per passenger. If your goal is to process as many people as efficiently as possible while resources are strained, eliminating PreCheck does the opposite.
As I said yesterday, if anything, expanding expedited screening would reduce strain on the system, not increase it.
This is why the justification offered by DHS never quite added up. The explanation was about workforce strain, but the policy would have made that strain worse. That disconnect is apparent to anyone paying attention. So too is the statement from DHS addressing why there was a sudden “flip flop” on pausing PreCheck:
“We decided to handle TSA PreCheck on an airport-by-airport basis depending on workforce and resource strain instead of a blanket policy. If the government stays shutdown, we will be forced to implement these emergency measures nationwide to mitigate resource and workforce strain. This political game by the Democrats is putting strain on our TSA workers who are working without pay.”
That still makes no sense. TSA PreCheck speeds up security screenings and reduces the burden on workers at any and every airport it exists in…there is no viable “case-by-case” basis for determining whether it causes “resource strain” because by its very function it relieves strain.
PreCheck Was Simply A Political Pawn
The more plausible explanation is that TSA PreCheck was chosen because it is visible, popular, and immediately disruptive to travelers. Suspending it sends a message in a way that pausing less visible programs does not. It creates instant pain for frequent flyers and business travelers, a group more likely to notice and complain.
That pain could then be attributed to the shutdown and, by extension, to congressional Democrats. In fact, DHS statements framed the situation as a political game that was hurting TSA workers and the traveling public. The problem is that once the backlash arrived, including from the airline and travel industry, the White House appears to have decided the cost was not worth the message.
The result was a retreat to an airport by airport approach, with PreCheck preserved (yet Global Entry remaining paused).
Yesterday Noem appeared at Washington National Airport (DCA) to interview a TSA agent about how bad things were:
Yet does she not realize (of course she does…) that by ending PreCheck, she made the job of this agent and his colleagues even more difficult?
The cognitive dissonance here makes me so jaded.
CONCLUSION
The near suspension of TSA PreCheck was not a serious attempt to manage airport security during a shutdown. It was a political pressure tactic that collapsed as soon as it was examined through an operational lens.
PreCheck survives because it works. It moves people efficiently and reduces strain on the system. The fact that it was briefly placed on the chopping block tells nothing about aviation security and only how travel programs can be used as leverage in political disputes. Yet the rollout of this “punishment” was so poorly conceived that even the Trump administration said “no way” and quickly overruled Noem and Landowski.
It’s time for Noem to step down and go back to her dog in South Dakota.
image: Mikaela McGee/Department of Homeland Security
Policy should not be made from pillowtalk
Indeed.
Shows that some goose stepping subordinates make bad choices yhat need correction. Other examples (to give equal time to Democrats) include RFK Jr (not corrected) and Mamdani.
So why does JFK sometimes have limited hours pre-check?
Thankfully, the FCC doesn’t micromanage travel blogs, and this isn’t an election, so no need for equal time.
Corey will not be permitted to work in his unpaid ” lover/advisor” position past May. The plan was to have Noem campaign. Things might move a little faster with the numbers down. SOTU will be interesting.
I say this as a conservative — this version of the comically corrupt, grifting, and disloyal GOP must go. Though I fear that, since most of the Republicans “of old” no longer have influence within the party or have become Democrats, even in the post-Trump world, we’ll continue to see the party move in the direction of self-interested Kristi Noem and Kash Patel types.
I, too, fear that ship has sailed.
Never a dull moment when we have Noem the puppy killing cosplayer and Lewandowski, a man twice charged with battery against women (and who had to take “impulse control counseling”) living la vida loca in their $70 mil love shack in the sky while impulse firing pilots and directing ICE agents to engage in abuse that frequently ends in the deaths of Americans
Think before you act.
The sole motivation in nearly every action she takes is self-promotion and a determined effort to position herself as the heir of the MAGA cult. I disagree with many of the actions and programs crafted by officials of the Trump administration, but among the public-facing officials, she is the most psychopathic. The minutes that she senses that her future as a MAGA Queen is dead, she will move on – because nothing that she has ever done since leaving her “ranch” in the heart of corn country has been about purpose or principle.
Re “is the most psychopathic”, certainly Hegseth and Kennedy and Bondi are every bit as psychopathic as ICE Barbie (sorry for the insult Barbie, even a child’s humanoid doll is smarter and more psychologically healthy than anyone in this administration). Yet even with their seemingly infinite psychopathy, none of them approach their dear leader in that regard.
Clinton was correct, except it’s “all” (not half) his supporters who are a basket of deplorables.
The MAGA demigod is a compulsive serial pathologic liar, flip-flopping, pathologic toxic narcissist, know-it-all, schizophrenic or psychopathic, arrogant, sanctimonious, psychological projecting, multiply convicted felon, serial sexual abuser, completely corrupt, grifter, imbecile, immature, infantile, stupid, ignorant, cheating (on all 3 wives), military service dodging, racist, conspiracy theory embracing, authoritarian, fascist, nasty, bully, incompetent, arrogant, with 50 years multiply documented proofs for each of those allegations, devoid of morals and integrity and honesty or a single redeeming quality. Basically every possible BAD human personal and professional trait.
People in NY to whom he’s been exposed for 50 years know that best, why his support in NY is nonexistent and why he fled to Florida. The members of his administration only support him for power and fame, purely transactional, most of them years ago wrote or spoke in opposition to him. Every one of his policies, according to all objective criteria, are detrimental to the best interests of the country, he and his policies are fundamentally indefensible. If it wasn’t actually happening it would be unbelievable, a Hollywood script writer would be hard pressed to write a script as perverse and absurd as MAGA reality, truth is most definitely stranger than fiction.
HIS SUPPORTERS ARE EVEN MORE STUPID AND GULLIBLE AND RACIST THAN HE IS AND THEY PROVE WITH THEIR EVERY UTTERANCE TO BE THE ACTUAL DERANGED (TDS) VICTIMS. He said it himself after his first primary victory in 2016 “I love the poorly educated” which obviously applies to book smarts AND street smarts and all his ilk. It’s unfortunate and sad and pathetic that the rest of us have to suffer the consequences AND repercussions of his supporters’ stupidity.
This ENTIRE ADMINISTRATION is INCOMPETENT so nothing they enact/unlawfully does surprises me ♂️
Just how does pausing Global Entry ease the workload? At my home airport there is only one agent assigned to the Global Entry users – as opposed to a number of them for the rest of the passengers.
Kristi Noem is an idiot, a puppy killer, and ultimately a completely unqualified country bumpkin who only got this job because of her loyalty to Trump. It’s not a surprise to see this so badly mishandled, and just goes to highlight the incompetence of this administration.
Update . Noem made customs for clearance difficult for IAD fixed base operators. This is unacceptable. Been working on a three way spat about this most of day. Ugh.
@Matt — Did you see: Noem is out. Markwayne Mullin is in. Markwayne, reopen GE!
I’m so glad to see this. Yes, story coming.