Trump ordered a hiring freeze. Did it include air traffic controllers as Rep. Jasmine Crockett said?

U.S. Rep, Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said on X that although it’s too soon to say what caused the fatal Jan. 29 collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet, President Donald Trump had cut several aviation safety jobs and paused new hires as soon as he resumed the presidency.

"On his first day in office, Donald Trump froze the hiring of federal employees — including air traffic controllers," Crockett wrote in a thread on Jan. 30. 

On Jan. 20, Trump ordered a government-wide hiring freeze, stopping any open positions from being filled and any new positions from being created. But it exempted several categories, including "public safety" jobs. 

Crockett’s office told PolitiFact that her claim was based on Trump’s hiring freeze directive, which did not explicitly say that air traffic controllers were exempt and cited a lack of clarity about exemptions in the days preceding the crash. 

Still, air traffic controller shortages at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and nationwide have been a long-standing problem, and aviation experts told PolitiFact that it's doubtful that a Jan. 20 hiring freeze would have made the crash more likely. 

PolitiFact cannot independently confirm whether the hiring of air traffic controllers was ever frozen or if such a freeze was lifted. We could not find any documentation detailing when the Federal Aviation Administration outlined its exemptions, when that was made clear to employees and whether jobs were ever removed from the federal jobs portal.

Statements from a union representing air traffic controllers — before the crash — show it was unclear to the union whether air traffic controllers were exempt from the hiring freeze.

National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels said in a Jan. 27 statement: "At this time, we do not have a definitive answer if the hiring freeze (presidential memo) affects air traffic control hiring." A Jan. 29 statement reiterated that uncertainty. 

On Jan. 22, two ranking members of transportation and aviation related committees, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., and Rep. Rick Larsen, D- Wash., issued a joint statement claiming that the hiring freeze affected air traffic controllers. 

Politico reported Jan. 22 that Sen.Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the Senate Commerce Committee chair, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth D-Ill., the ranking member on the aviation subcommittee, had no information on how the freeze affected air traffic controller staffing.

The White House told PolitiFact that Trump’s exemption covered air traffic controllers and that their hiring was never suspended or frozen. 

Based on Trump’s hiring freeze order, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget said in a memo that "positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety," are exempt. It directed agency heads to consult the Office of Personnel Management about the exemptions.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a Feb 2. CNN interview that the freeze didn’t affect air traffic controllers. He said that almost 1,200 critical safety positions, including air traffic controllers, were exempted. Duffy also said the Federal Aviation Administration had hired new controllers that week. USAjobs.gov, a portal listing federal government job openings, had air traffic control jobs posted online as of Feb 3. 

The FAA also told PolitiFact that it continues hiring new controllers, but did not address questions about whether hiring was ever paused. 

Daniels also said in a Feb. 1 CNN interview, "We do thank Secretary Duffy, he did lift the hiring freeze on air traffic controllers now." Daniels did not specify when Duffy lifted the freeze. 

PolitiFact emailed Daniels’ organization, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, but got no response.

On his second presidential term’s second day, Trump fired the Transportation Safety Administration administrator, the Coast Guard commandant and the Aviation Security Advisory Committee members, a group that includes private-sector aviation groups, The Associated Press reported.

Although these officials are involved in aviation safety, the firings "would not have led to such an immediate impact," said Jim Cardoso, a former U.S. Air Force colonel and pilot who is now senior director of the University of South Florida’s Global and National Security Institute.

"All the processes to control and deconflict air traffic in the D.C. area have been well established for a long time," Cardoso said. "The personnel involved in the accident — air crew from the two aircraft and the (air traffic controllers) in place at the time of the accident — would similarly not have been affected by" the recent policy changes in Trump’s executive orders, he said.

The New York Times reported Jan. 30 that staffing at the air traffic control tower was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," based on an internal preliminary Federal Aviation Administration safety report. The Reagan airport tower has been understaffed for years, partly because of employee turnover and tight budgets, the Times reported. 

PolitiFact Staff Writer Loreben Tuquero and Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.