President Trump’s U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for the surge in U.S. air traffic control problems and safety concerns during his first three months on the job.
Duffy recently said: “By the way, during Covid, when people weren’t flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems.”
(Note: President Trump was in the White House during the period of the pandemic when people weren’t flying.)
Duffy: “By the way, during covid, when people weren’t flying, that was a perfect time to fix these problems.”
(Who wants to tell him … )
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 12, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Duffy is now receiving criticism about his priorities after making the video below, in which he proudly says that he’s been working hard with the Merchant Marines Academy to bring a painting of Jesus Christ out from the basement and onto a wall in a prominent setting at the academy.
We learned today that 20 pilots lost contact with air traffic control after radio failures at Denver Airport. The same thing happened in Newark recently. But don’t worry—our Transportation Secretary is hard at work… moving a painting of Jesus. pic.twitter.com/flJ2IvmTn9
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 15, 2025
Duffy said after members of the Merchant Marines told him how important the painting was to all of them, “I worked with the Academy, and because this is such a historic painting, I’m announcing that through that work with the Academy, this painting is going to go from the basement back to its place of prominence.”
Note: The painting, “Christ on the Water,” was created in 1944 by Lt. Hunter Wood, USMS, and originally hung in the Elliott M. See Room of Wiley Hall. During the Biden administration, the painting was removed for art conservation and restoration.
It was newly reinstalled near the Mariner’s Memorial Chapel in September 2023, instead being returned to the Elliott M. See room, after some complaints that it represented an “improper message of preferred faith in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.”
The X account “Republicans against Trump” replied to Duffy’s painting boast: “We learned today that 20 pilots lost contact with air traffic control after radio failures at Denver Airport. The same thing happened in Newark recently. But don’t worry—our Transportation Secretary is hard at work… moving a painting of Jesus.”
Others on X are finding the video hard to believe, as one wrote: “OMG. This has to be a joke. Blackout in Denver and the answer is to make a 30 second PR spot for a Jesus painting? We live in strange times.”
One Brit replied: “If you’re relying on Jesus to get the planes down safely I’m staying in the uk.” Another added: “They should put a priest, in every plane flying over American airspace. The passengers could use the prayers.”