Greene calls Duffy, Mullin press briefing ‘a shakedown for more money’

Ford McCracken Sat, November 14, 2026 at 1:57 PM UTC

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Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin of using Friday’s nationwide ground stop to demand more taxpayer money, calling their joint press conference “unreal bulls—.”

“It doesn’t matter to any of them that the US Congress and every administration has spent like $15 trillion on foreign wars over the past 25 years but yeah you guys gotta fork over 50 billion more dollars so they can finally fix something in America,” Greene wrote in a post to the social platform X.

Representatives for the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. flights Friday afternoon, a rare move used previously in 2023, and before that, as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The FAA cited a “temporary telecommunications outage,” which Duffy said was caused by a system “overloaded with data” that forced them to shut it down.

In the press conference, Duffy said he wanted $50 billion in funding for modernizing the air traffic control system — a key priority of his as transportation secretary.

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“I want $50 billion,” Duffy said. “Let’s finish this job: new hardware, new software, new telecommunication.”

While Mullin said there was no indication of a cyberattack or anything nefarious, he said they would not rule anything out. Greene claimed they were lying and that it was “obviously” a cyberattack, without evidence.

The FAA recently rolled out an AI-powered air traffic control tool, called the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) program. The tool debuted first in the Washington, D.C. area and cost the department $875 million.

Air Space Intelligence, the company behind SMART, issued a statement Friday night denying any link to the ground stop, which Duffy echoed during the briefing.

The transportation secretary shared his message to members of Congress requesting increased funding.

“Give President Trump — give Duffy the money. Let them finish this job so we don’t have to do a press conference at 8:30 at night ever again,” Duffy said.

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