'We actually build things here': Trump official takes a swipe at Musk's DOGE

The Trump administration's Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, took a barely-concealed swipe at tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency task force while addressing the public about the latest string of air disasters that have unfolded since the new administration took office.

These incidents have included the devastating crash of American Eagle Flight 5342 over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., the first fatal commercial air accident on U.S. soil in 15 years, as well as a number of other smaller incidents, including the crash of a small aircraft in Boca Raton, Florida, on Friday morning.

"I want to talk about DOGE for a second, okay?" said Duffy, speaking from Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. "I know there's been some freakout, there's been some concern, there's been a lot of emotion. And I would just tell you, do I want to make our government more efficient? Do I want to be able to do a little more with a little less? Because then I put more money into the great work that we do? Yeah, I want to do that. But you can't do that without good people, right?"

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"And so, though I want us to be more efficient, I also look, and I think of DOGE cutting things, I don't know about that elsewhere, but we actually build things here, right?" Duffy continued. "You can't cut your way to a new road, you can't cut your way to a new bridge, you can't cut your way to a new air traffic control system. So we're actually going to build in this department."

Under DOGE's advice, Trump laid off hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration staffers at the start of the term, although Duffy has insisted that the only dismissed workers were probationary employees in non-critical roles and not any air traffic controllers.

Many lawmakers in Congress remain unconvinced this layoff had no impact on safety, however.

Watch the video below or at the link here.