The Donald Trump government-imposed shutdown in the U.S. has reached its sixth day, and there is no clear indication of it ending anytime soon. With thousands of people left stranded and clueless about what’s next, they are additionally facing troubles, especially during air travel, amid other restrictions.
Interestingly enough, all these crises have fallen on deaf ears, since the authorities from the Republicans and Democrats seem to be busy pointing fingers at each other, without actually putting their heads together to churn out a solution. Amid all the chaos and uncertainty, California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has now found another opportunity to tear down Trump, after his shutdown policies have ended up impacting something as basic as travel.
Taking to X, Newsom penned a rather long post calling out Trump’s implementation of the shutdown, since it has now resulted in an entire airport being left stranded without any air traffic controllers in sight. For the unfamiliar, the Burbank Airport met with a triggering crisis on Monday after all the air traffic controllers called in sick, leading to flight delays and utter chaos everywhere. With the ATC tower being left unmanned, it led the way to a totally disrupted flight schedule that came along with the fear of a possible untoward accident.
Newsom’s post on X read as “Thanks, @realDonaldTrump! Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15 pm to 10 pm today because of YOUR government shutdown”. The words of the Governor came right after ABC News claimed that the air traffic control tower was left completely unmanned on the entire Monday night, since there had been cases of refusal of pay and blocked salaries for the employees.
Thanks, @realDonaldTrump!
Burbank Airport has ZERO air traffic controllers from 4:15pm to 10pm today because of YOUR government shutdown. https://t.co/bnfuI9CKiR
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) October 6, 2025
According to the air traffic controllers of the Burbank Airport, who spoke to ABC News, they had passed on their duties to Southern California TRACON, which is a San Diego-based facility that houses air traffic controllers. The mayhem and confusion caused by this transfer of responsibilities led to holdups and delays in flight routes for about two and a half hours. While Newsom’s post covered what most people were disappointed with, especially the passengers dealing with the delay, he was also warded off with a quick hit back from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Sean, in his post on X, clapped back at Newsom and wrote, “News flash! Your Democrat friends shut down the government because they want to make Americans pay for health care for illegals. And no state has more illegals than California. You care more about illegals than our hard-working American air traffic controllers. If you’re looking for someone to blame, look in the mirror – we all know it’s your favorite thing to do.”
News flash!
Your Democrat friends shut down the government because they want to make Americans pay the health care for illegals. And no state has more illegals than California!
You care more about illegals than our hard-working American air traffic controllers.
If you’re… https://t.co/JMWNHUSjBW
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) October 7, 2025
Back on Monday, it was Sean Duffy who himself listed out the difficulties people were actually facing due to the shutdown, especially at the air traffic control tower, where there was actually no person to monitor the aircraft movements. He had mentioned, “So, we’re tracking sick calls, sick leave, and have we had a slight tick up in sick calls? Yes, and then you’ll see delays that come from that. Our priorities are safety. And so, if we have additional sick calls, we will reduce the flow consistent with a rate that’s safe for the American people.”
