The Real War on Thanksgiving
Politics over people: millions face missed paychecks, canceled flights, or uncertain SNAP benefits just weeks before Thanksgiving.
I’m currently traveling for a work trip—this piece was pre-scheduled. It’s possible that a vote to reopen the government has already taken place by the time this hits your inbox.
Let’s be perfectly clear: this is not normal.
It’s November 11. The government has been shut down for over forty days. Federal employees have missed two paychecks. The Trump administration is appealing a federal court order to fully fund November SNAP benefits—and late Friday, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily paused that order while an appeals court decides whether millions of Americans will eat this month. The USDA says it’s working to make payments. Some states have issued full benefits. Others are still waiting. Meanwhile, the president is fighting in court for the right to withhold food from the needy during the holidays. Let that sink in.
If not for the courts stepping in, SNAP could have gone completely unfunded. That’s not incompetence. That’s cruelty, weaponized for political theater.
And the havoc doesn’t stop at the dinner table. The FAA is now canceling flights at forty major airports. They call it a “proactive safety measure.” Let’s translate: a system already groaning under exhaustion is about to buckle. There are 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA agents being forced to work without pay since October 1. The people responsible for keeping our skies and airports safe have gone six weeks without a paycheck.
Controllers were already on mandatory overtime and six-day weeks before the shutdown even began. The FAA could have hired 3,500 more staff to relieve them. Instead, the government chose to push the same overworked people even harder—and now, to ground flights during the busiest travel season of the year.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged Sunday during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union that air travel is “only going to get worse” as Thanksgiving approaches, warning that it could be “reduced to a trickle” before the holiday. He said a “substantial” number of Americans will not be able to spend the holiday with their families due to the FAA-mandated flight reductions, which began Friday.
Even when the shutdown ends and the government reopens, Duffy cautioned that the staffing shortages could still ripple through the busiest travel week of the year. “As I try to reduce the pressure by lowering flights, I have more controllers that keep not coming to work, and so the pressure goes back up again,” Duffy told CNN (via NBC News). Translation: the system is collapsing under its own weight.
Meanwhile, Trump has demolished the East Wing during the shutdown to start building a $300 million ballroom no one asked for and no one needs—while millions of Americans wait for food, paychecks, and flights that might actually operate. Let that absurdity settle in: workers are starving for pay, and the president is blowing through hundreds of millions of dollars on a vanity project.
If you care about safety, you don’t overwork the people keeping planes in the air. If you care about families, you don’t slash food assistance right before Thanksgiving. And if you care about the economy—or basic decency—you don’t let the government remain closed for six weeks just to feed egos, stall leverage, or score political points.
This is not politics. This is playing with people’s lives. Federal employees, travelers, families, and small businesses are the ones paying the price. Every day this shutdown drags on, the United States grows less functional, less safe, and less humane. And for what? So a president who has already lost the popular vote twice can play strongman? So members of Congress can avoid making a decision that will make them unpopular on Twitter?
The Trump administration says it’s protecting the integrity of federal funds. Congress says it’s standing on principle. Meanwhile, people can’t afford rent, flights are canceled, food is uncertain, and dignity is gone. Stop pretending there are shades of gray. There are winners and victims, and the victims are Americans trying to live their lives.
Thanksgiving is supposed to be about gratitude, not survival. But this year, the message is clear: if you’re lucky, your benefits arrive; if you’re lucky, your flight isn’t canceled; if you’re lucky, your job isn’t gone. Gratitude is optional. Survival is mandatory. And it is a national disgrace that those in charge have made survival a political bargaining chip.
This isn’t leadership. This isn’t governance. It’s vandalism of the public trust. And until Congress ends this shutdown and the administration stops using families as leverage, Americans should be angry, terrified, and ready to hold the people responsible accountable.