The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Noem's message is now being blasted out in airports nationwide

11:45 ET, 10 Oct 2025Updated 13:27 ET, 10 Oct 2025

View ImageUsers on X slammed Noem for her partisan position(Image: AP)

Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, starred in a new Trump administration video that began airing Thursday on airport monitors across the country, blaming Democrats for the nine-day-old government shutdown that has caused massive flight delays as thousand of aviation employees continue to work without pay.

“Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay,” Noem says in the clip, which a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to Reuters is now being blasted out in airports nationwide.

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The U.S. has some 13,000 air traffic controllers who are not being paid during the current government shutdown but must still turn up for work and set to miss their first paycheck next Tuesday. It comes as Trump is accused of adding more gold fixtures to Oval Office while Americans struggle during the shutdown.

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“Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown, the worse it gets for Americans—and the clearer it becomes who’s fighting for them,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

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Users on X slammed Noem for her partisan position. "Ms. Noem needs to look at her title, she is the Director of Homeland Security, not the Director for Republican Homeland Security. She has a non-partisan position once she is appointed",

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The government shutdown began Oct. 1 after the Congress failed to pass a new spending bill as Democrats refused to approve approve the Republican-backed stopgap plan, which omits funding to subsidize health insurance for low-income Americans. Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Democrats of holding the government hostage over social spending.

"What dystopian nightmare is this?",

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Negotiations have gone nowhere. Seven separate votes have failed since the start of the shutdown, and despite Republicans’ 53-seat Senate majority, they need 60 votes to pass any funding bill. Only three Democrats have defected from Schumer’s caucus so far.

The current crisis recalls the 35-day shutdown of 2019, the longest government shutdown in the history, during Trump’s first administration, when unpaid controllers began calling out en masse, forcing the FAA to slow traffic into major airports like LaGuardia and Newark and ultimately pressuring Congress to cut a deal.

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It comes after leaked Oval Office photos exposed Trump's controversial plans fo DC.

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