Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tried to beam a partisan pep talk straight into America’s airport security lines, and the answer from a growing list of terminals was a hard no. More than half a dozen airports are refusing to air Noem’s slickly produced video, which blames Democrats for the government shutdown, warns TSA operations are being “impacted,” and claims many screeners are working without pay. The spot was designed for maximum exposure, looping on monitors while passengers snake through checkpoints. Instead, it is getting grounded at the gate.
Noem stares down the camera and lays the blame squarely on congressional Democrats, declaring that shutdown fallout is landing on critical security functions and on the people who staff them. But airport authorities say the video is not a public service announcement, it is a political ad in everything but name, and they are not turning their concourses into campaign venues.
Port authorities in the Pacific Northwest were among the first to balk, citing both federal and state restrictions. Their argument is simple, the Hatch Act limits political activity by federal employees who work in connection with federally funded programs, and state law in places like Oregon bars public employees from promoting or opposing political parties on public property. In other words, if you want to score points, do it somewhere other than the TSA line.
NEWS: Phoenix Sky Harbor tells @abc15 it will NOT broadcast this video of Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the gov’t shutdown. A spox tells me the decision is “consistent with airport policy.”
It joins other airports like Seattle in declining the video.
pic.twitter.com/CkT7ozoUkR— Rachel Louise Just (@RLJnews) October 13, 2025
Seattle’s airport authority took a similar tack, saying the message’s political tone made it a nonstarter. The port stressed that its focus is on supporting federal workers who are showing up without pay, not on amplifying partisan blame games to captive audiences. Instead of the video, airports are organizing food drives, parking discounts, and assistance tables for federal personnel. That split screen, workers helping workers while a cabinet secretary tapes a blame clip, is not the PR moment Noem was hoping for.
For travelers, the only thing more aggravating than a slow moving checkpoint is a lecturing monitor telling them who to blame. For TSA officers and other federal staff, the video feels like salt in the wound. Many of them are already stretching to cover shifts, fielding questions from frustrated passengers, and juggling bills in the middle of a shutdown they did not cause. Watching a political message loop above their heads while they work without pay, that is a morale killer.
Noem’s allies insist the video is fair warning, not electioneering, and that the public deserves to know who is holding up government funding. But the airport retort is straightforward, inform passengers about wait times and procedures, not about who to vote for. If the Department of Homeland Security wants to update travelers on operational impacts, it can do that without turning the checkpoint into a partisan scoreboard.
Instead of dominating airport screens, Noem is dominating headlines for getting rebuffed. The episode hands Democrats an easy counterpunch, that even nonpartisan transit hubs see the messaging as out of bounds, and it reinforces a broader shutdown narrative, more theater than solutions, more blame than bargaining.
Airports have one job when you are in line, keep you moving and keep you safe. On that count, their choice is clear, skip the MAGA pep talk, help the people keeping the lanes open, and leave the politics outside the metal detectors.
