President Donald Trump is taking aim at the Transportation Security Administration, proposing a partial privatization of airport security alongside funding cuts. It is an idea that has surfaced before, but this time it comes amid lingering operational chaos, staffing shortages, and renewed questions about whether TSA is actually making us safer.
Trump Proposes Privatizing TSA Screening Operations
In his latest budget proposal, President Trump is calling for a shift away from a fully federalized airport security model toward increased reliance on private contractors.
The plan would cut TSA funding by $52 million and require smaller airports to enroll in the Screening Partnership Program, which allows private companies, paid by TSA, to handle passenger screening. The White House argues this would “yield cost savings compared to Federal screening” while beginning reform of what it characterizes as a troubled agency.
A limited number of U.S. airports already use private screeners, including San Francisco International Airport (SFO), and the administration points to those as proof the model can work. But this proposal comes at a fraught moment. Recent funding disruptions left TSA agents unpaid for weeks, triggering mass absenteeism, long lines, and over 500 officers quitting outright.
The Case For Privatizing TSA
Supporters of privatization make a compelling argument.
First, cost. Private operators, at least in some cases, appear to run screening operations more efficiently. The Screening Partnership Program has long been cited as a way to reduce federal overhead without eliminating security altogether.
Second, flexibility. A privatized system is less exposed to government shutdowns and political brinkmanship. The recent chaos at U.S. airports showed just how vulnerable TSA is to funding disputes.
Third, accountability. In theory, poorly performing contractors can be replaced more easily than entrenched federal bureaucracies.
There is also an uncomfortable truth behind this push: the TSA has struggled to pass its own internal audits. Repeated covert testing has shown disturbingly high failure rates when agents are tasked with detecting banned items, raising serious concerns about effectiveness.
The Case Against Privatization
But privatization carries real risks.
Security is a core government function tied directly to national safety. Private contractors introduce profit motives into a system where cutting corners can have catastrophic consequences. Lower wages, reduced training, and high turnover could undermine security in ways that are not immediately visible. I’m not old enough to remember what security was like pre 9/11/2001, but it wasn’t a pretty picture.
There is also the issue of fragmentation. A patchwork system of contractors across hundreds of airports could lead to inconsistent standards and uneven performance, even with federal government oversight.
And then there is the reality of how privatization often works in Washington. As I noted yesterday in my Noem-McLaughlin piece, government outsourcing frequently becomes fertile ground for graft, inefficiency, and politically connected contracts. Privatization does not eliminate bureaucracy. Quite the contrary, often it just relocates it and makes it less transparent. Taxpayers still get hosed.
Airport Security Never Was And Never Will Be Fail-Safe
Airport security is not a perfect shield. It is one layer in a much broader system that includes intelligence gathering, law enforcement, passenger vetting, hardened cockpit doors, and behavioral detection. In many ways, TSA functions as much as a psychological deterrent as it does a physical barrier.
The visible presence of screening creates confidence and discourages opportunistic threats. But it is not the primary reason planes are not being hijacked today. If you treat TSA as the single line of defense, you will always conclude it needs to be more aggressive and intrusive. But if you view it as one layer among many, the cost of approximating”perfection” is not necessary.
There is no such thing as perfect security.
We could, in theory, make aviation safer. We could mandate hours-long screenings, invasive searches like I endured in Israel.
But the cost would be enormous, both economically and socially. Think of it like the 55 MPH national speed limit era. It may have saved lives, but it slowed the country to a crawl. The tradeoff was not worthwhile.
Airport security operates under the same tradeoff. The current system is imperfect, sometimes frustrating (and concerningly, often ineffective in prohibiting blocked items). But it strikes a balance that most travelers accept.
CONCLUSION
Trump’s proposal to privatize TSA is not inherently unreasonable. There are legitimate arguments for introducing competition and reducing federal control. There are equally valid concerns about safety, consistency, and corruption.
Still, that’s not really the point in my mind. The bigger question is how much security we actually need, and what we are willing to sacrifice to achieve it. Right now, the system we have, flawed as it is, remains within that acceptable balance, whether privatized or not. Debates over removing shoes and liquid bans strike me as a far more important discussion.
image: TSA
According to plan.
Trump worships Putin, who privatized everything in post-Soviet Russia, giving key industries to cronies.
No one should want to become part of this kleptocracy. Even the oligarchs who think they benefit may soon find that they get thrown out of open windows.
We would all be poorer and worse off as a result. Doesn’t have to be this way. 212 days until midterms. Let’s get better leaders.
Mid terms will not save you.mlike 2018 you people overestimate your support. Either way it goes be will still finish his third term fully and get the honor.
Wow, even a blind squirrel… He’ll still find a way to screw up a great idea ( not original with him, of course). I’m waiting to read (from those posters I read) the silly anti-privatization logic they will use.
Many don’t care for this administration. I got it.
As I asked over on OMAAT, at MCI and SFO, is the security contract between DHS and the contractor OR is the contract between the airport and the contractor?
How much of the saving will end up in War Criminal Trump’s pocket?
Apologies in advance Matthew, due to your government time I don’t think you’re gonna like this.
For every Republican administration this century, part of the playbook has been to drastically underfund government departments whose job is inherently at odds with the Executive viewpoint and/or place department leaders who are completely inimical to the department itself. For example, the W administration placing a flunky who hated the EPA as head of the EPA then claiming that the EPA’s job wasn’t what clearly was stated, or underfunding the IRS radically so the ultra-rich don’t get audited as much so they end up paying a lot less taxes.
The next step is to decry the agency Republicans just underfunded – and is now starved for funds – as incapable of doing its’ job. Then that moves to “Privitizing” these functions. In English that means handing government-subsidized sweetheart deals to well connected people and companies. The public almost always loses out in these deals, not least because because the profit motive has a nasty way of superceding the basics of the promised job.
This administration has unquestionably been the most corrupt in our country’s history. TSA has improvements that need to be addressed but handing out more sweetheart deals to corrupt cronies that will try to screw the nation on out security to squeeze out more profit is a terrible alternative to what we have right now.
Of course he wants to privatize airport security, so his son’s new security company can “win” the contract. Clearly the most corrupt grifting criminal administration in the history of the world. The spineless GOP and all MAGA cultists are the actual sufferers of TDS, supporting and defending him and believing anything he says or writes. Fascinating how Comer and Gym Jordan spent so much time and energy during Biden administration complaining about the “weaponization of government” and since 2025, when every department actually did attack political “enemies”, not a squeak. Fascinating how Comer spent years investigating Biden’s son for getting $100k from Ukraine but not a squeak about MAGA Leader’s SIL getting $50 BILLION from Saudia Arabia. The Orange turd is far more guilty of treason than anyone he accuses of it.
I would welcome a de-federalization of the airport security screener functions and the costs and operations for it placed back on airlines and airports as worked fine before 9/11 drove the country crazy.
Odd that most countries haven’t federalized their checkpoints, notably Canada. CATSA is the regulator and they oversee the 3rd party operators. How many security breaches do we see in Canada? And guess what else is privatized in Canada and does 20x a better job than the US — air traffic. NavCanada is a private entity. And their technology is lightyears ahead of us (IN general).
But to Matthew’s point, we (airlines) used to be in charge of the security and would either do it ourselves (in many small airports), local police would do it, or we had a 3rd party. The FAA used to oversee this program (again, all Pre-TSA) and all TSA has done was become a massive line item in a budget process.
Whether you like Trump or not, this is how security is handled in most of the free world. The government is the REGULATOR, and NOT the operator.
Odd that most countries haven’t federalized their checkpoints, notably Canada. CATSA is the regulator and they oversee the 3rd party operators. How many security breaches do we see in Canada? And guess what else is privatized in Canada and does 20x a better job than the US — air traffic. NavCanada is a private entity. And their technology is lightyears ahead of us (IN general).
But to Matthew’s point, we (airlines) used to be in charge of the security and would either do it ourselves (in many small airports), local police would do it, or we had a 3rd party. The FAA used to oversee this program (again, all Pre-TSA) and all TSA has done was become a massive line item in a budget process.
Whether you like Trump or not, this is how security is handled in most of the free world. The government is the REGULATOR, and NOT the operator.
You did a little Oopsie there ala Retired Gambler where you post under multiple names. HINT: Don’t post exactly the same thing. Pretend that you have independent thought.
Project 2025, page 192.
It’s always been the plan. To privatize all government agencies to enrich people in the private sector.
TSA is basically nothing but security theater anyway, and if they successfully privatize it, it will be even less secure, a messy array of dozens of contractors all getting taxpayer funds, and will have little to no oversight.
The worst part of the fall of the American empire, is that we did it to ourselves. No foreign enemy even needed to try that hard, we are just collapsing on ourselves because of a small minority of paranoid idiots.