Amid reports of a collision between a passenger plane and a U.S. Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29, 2025, killing 67 people, social media users began claiming that U.S. President Donald Trump disbanded a key aviation safety committee and fired the heads of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Posts spread on Reddit, Bluesky and X (archived, archived and archived) while the cause of the crash remained under intense investigation. News reports about Trump's purported firings were amplified online, including by Democratic lawmakers U.S. Rep. Norma Torres of California and Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico (archived, archived, archived and archived).
Some posts also claimed that Trump fired 400 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) senior officials and 3,000 air traffic controllers (archived, archived and archived).
Snopes was able to independently verify that Trump's administration fired the heads of the Coast Guard and the TSA and disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. However, we found no evidence that Trump fired 400 Federal Aviation Administration officials. Thus, we rate this claim a mixture.
Snopes also previously found no evidence that Trump fired 3,000 air traffic controllers.
Trump's administration announced the firing of Admiral Linda L. Fagan, the first woman to head the Coast Guard as its commandant, in a Jan. 21, 2025, bulletin to Coast Guard employees. The bulletin was signed by Benjamine C. Huffman, Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as its acting secretary, before the U.S. Senate confirmed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
According to the bulletin, Admiral Kevin E. Lunday became acting commandant of the United States Coast Guard after Fagan's dismissal. Congress confirmed Fagan as commandant of the Coast Guard under former President Joe Biden's administration in 2021.
Huffman also sent a Jan. 20 memo to "all members of Department of Homeland Security advisory committees" informing them that he was directing the "termination of all current memberships on advisory committees within DHS, effective immediately." As the Aviation Security Advisory Committee is established under the TSA, which is part of DHS, that means all members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee were terminated through this order.
(Andrew Huddleston/American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO)
According to the TSA (archived), the Aviation Security Advisory Committee was established in 1989 after a terrorist attack on Pan Am flight 103 and provides advice to the TSA administrator on aviation security policy. Under a 2014 law, the committee's existence became permanent — but the Trump administration's decision to remove all advisory committee members meant it was effectively disbanded, at least temporarily.
Snopes obtained a copy of the memo from Andrew Huddleston, director of communications at the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. Huddleston was also able to send former TSA Administrator David Pekoske's farewell message to TSA employees.
In the message, Pekoske wrote that he was "advised by President Trump's transition team" that his time as TSA administrator would end at 12 p.m. EST on Jan. 20, 2025.
(Andrew Huddleston/American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO)
Pekoske led the TSA from 2017 to 2025 after Trump appointed him and Congress confirmed him in 2017.
Thus, it is true that Trump disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee and fired the heads of the TSA and the Coast Guard. However, we found no evidence that he also fired 400 senior officials at the FAA. As Snopes previously reported, the fact that dozens of users shared posts with identical language claiming Trump fired 400 senior officials and 3,000 air traffic controllers could indicate a disinformation campaign.
While Trump did sign a memorandum on Jan. 22, 2025, ending a Biden administration FAA hiring policy that he said "prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency" and ordered the FAA administrator to review the performance of FAA employees in "critical safety positions," we found no evidence he specifically fired 400 senior officials. Here's the key text in the memo:
- This Presidential Memorandum orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.
- It also requires the FAA Administrator to review the past performance and performance standards of all FAA employees in critical safety positions and make clear that any individual who fails to demonstrate adequate capability is replaced by someone who will ensure Americans' flight safety and efficiency.
Furthermore, FAA's website (archived) only shows 18 "key official" designations in its administrative structure, suggesting that the FAA does not have 400 "senior officials" to begin with, depending on how you define a senior official. It is true, however, that this key official page has six vacancies as of this writing. A Google search for "Trump fired 400 FAA officials" also returned no relevant results from reputable news outlets.
Snopes reached out to the FAA, the Trump administration and the air traffic controllers' union for comment and will update the story if we hear back.