Vance, Duffy Warn Thanksgiving Travel Will Be A ‘Disaster’ If Shutdown Continues

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy warned Thursday that Americans may see significant Thanksgiving travel issues if the government shutdown continues.

Vance led a roundtable discussion at the White House on Thursday afternoon focused on how the shutdown is impacting aviation, hearing from a number of aviation leaders on how the ongoing shutdown has affected the airlines thus far. The vice president and transportation secretary gaggled with reporters outside the White House following the roundtable, where they reminded White House press that air traffic controllers did not receive a paycheck this week — and that many aviation unions are calling on Senate Democrats to pass the “clean CR.”

Asked by the Daily Wire whether Americans should be afraid to fly if the shutdown continues, Vance said no — Americans should not be afraid to fly “because we’ve got great airline professionals who are keeping the safest aviation industry in the world afloat.”

“But they are doing it with incredible stress,” he warned. “What I worry more about is that if you have, let’s say, a pilot who has now missed two paychecks, who’s now telling his kids that they can’t do things that they would like to do, who’s now worried about feeding his family. Maybe that guy doesn’t show up to work. Maybe he goes and gets a different job. That means greater delays for the American people.”

US Vice President JD Vance fields a question during a press conference outside the West Wing of the White House on October 30, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver Contreras / AFP) (Photo by OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

“I worry about the air-traffic controller who now has missed two paychecks, who has gotta pay his credit card bill or his mortgage, but can’t pay both. And decides, you know what, this industry is not for me,” the vice president continued.

“I think that we have a safe system because these guys are doing heroic things in the midst of this terrible shutdown,” he added. “But why do we ask them to do so much without getting paid? Why don’t we pay them, so that they can be happy, they can do the best job they can do, and they’re not worried about feeding their families while they do a very important job for all of us.”

Meanwhile, Duffy specifically pointed out the pitfalls of air travel as inclement weather arrives in November and more Americans choose to travel.

“It’ll be a disaster in aviation,” Duffy said. “October is a slower air travel month, and we have great weather in October. And so you’ve seen minimal disruption because of good weather and slower travel. But as we go into November, travel picks up as people start to look at going to see their families, kids come home from college.”

The Transportation Secretary emphasized that “people will not be able to go from one place to the other because of a government shutdown.”

“I hope Democrats don’t take it to that point,” he said.

Vance has repeatedly made the point that “we need five more” reasonable, moderate Democrats to vote to reopen the government, and “put the American people first.”

“That’s all that we are asking,” he insisted again on Thursday. “Let’s talk about healthcare policy, let’s make sure that we ensure that Americans’ health insurance premiums don’t go up, we want that, and we’re willing to work with people for it, but they’ve got to reopen the government first.”