On Wednesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host, Obama family friend, and former Democratic Party donor Gayle King tried to tie Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the recent high-profile aviation accidents in 2025 and ask the CEO of Delta Airlines whether he too has concern about air safety with Trump in power. Thankfully, Delta’s Ed Bastian wasn’t having any of it.
After unsuccessful attempts by King and senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave to have Bastian speak to what he knows about why a Delta Airlines flipped over Monday in Toronto, Canada, King came right out with the partisan line wondering if Trump’s “cuts worry you” to the point there will be “impacts” on “safety”:
You know, the Trump administration recently fired many employees of the FAA administration. Did those cuts, do those cuts worry you, and do you think that impacts the safety? I know you said it’s the safest way to travel, but after looking at these mishaps, a lot of people are nervous. Do these cuts affect you?
Leave it to King, who two months ago tried to sympathize and understand those enamored with the suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealthCare CEO.
Bastian wasn’t having any of this and promptly told King that “the cuts do not affect us” even though people “are raising questions” and he knows so because he’s “been in close communication with the secretary of transportation.”
He continued the fact-check by explaining the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) workforce is “over 50,000 people...and the cuts I understand were 300 people and they were in noncritical safety functions.”
“The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies. They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators and safety investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all,” he added.
Van Cleave wasn’t as direct and zoomed out to the real fear Americans have of flying, but stayed tangentially on this theme by invoking Musk:
Ed, the administration has also called on Elon Musk to modernize air traffic control. From an airline standpoints, what needs to be done to make it better? And a quick follow-up, if I can, what do you say to the people nervous getting on airplanes right now?
Bastian showed understanding by saying he “can understand the concerns at the moment,” but emphasized “[t]he reality is it’s safer than the car ride I took this morning to get to my office” and “the safest form of transportation, period, and it’s safe because in our industry we all focus on safety” with competitors making each other aware of safety concerns.
To the contrary of the seemingly impenetrable wall of far-left partisans on social media (including their silly BlueSky), there were technically more aviation incidents in the early days of the Biden administration than under the Trump administration.
To see the relevant CBS transcript from February 19, click “expand.”
CBS Mornings
February 19, 2025
7:33 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Exclusive; Delta Air Lines CEO Live; Ed Bastian Reacts to Toronto Plane Crash & Talks Investigation Latest]
GAYLE KING: You know, the Trump administration recently fired many employees of the FAA administration. Did those cuts, do those cuts worry you, and do you think that impacts the safety? I know you said it’s the safest way to travel, but after looking at these mishaps, a lot of people are nervous. Do these cuts affect you?
ED BASTIAN: The cuts do not affect us, Gayle. I’ve been in close communication with the secretary of transportation. I understand that the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA, and the cuts I understand were 300 people and they were in noncritical safety functions. The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies. They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators and safety investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all.
KING: Ed, the administration has also called on Elon Musk to modernize air traffic control. From an airline standpoints, what needs to be done to make it better? And a quick follow-up, if I can, what do you say to the people nervous getting on airplanes right now?
BASTIAN: Well, to the public I can understand the concerns at the moment. The reality is it’s safer than the car ride I took this morning to get to my office. It is the safest form of transportation, period. And it’s safe because in our industry we all focus on safety. We’re very competitive industry across the U.S. airlines. There’s one thing we do not compete on and that’s safety. We all work together, we learn from each other. Every single incident that happens, whether it’s reported or not, gets reported back to our teams that we share across the industry. So, we learn from each other and this incident, as — as terrible as it appears, was something that we’ll learn from that will make us better.
