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Top Trump administration officials on Sunday warned that US air travel would slow to a “trickle” and US economic growth could turn negative if the country’s federal government shutdown continues for much longer.
The shutdown — which became the longest in US history this week — dragged into the weekend as Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill showed little sign of breaking the impasse.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent warned the economic impact would only get “worse and worse” as the closure disrupted air travel and cut the flow of much-needed food stamps for low-income Americans.
The closure could trigger shortages of goods and snarl supply chains as US airlines continued to cancel flights because of understaffing in air traffic control towers, Bessent said.
Kevin Hassett, the chair of the National Economic Council at the White House, warned that economic growth could turn negative in the fourth quarter if the shutdown continued.
“Thanksgiving time is one of the hottest times of the year for the economy, it’s Black Friday and all that kind of stuff,” said Hassett, referring to a big US shopping day.
“If people aren’t travelling at that moment, then we really could be looking at a negative quarter for the fourth quarter.”
The shutdown, which has now reached 40 days, has left hundreds of thousands of federal workers without pay, closed some services and disrupted the supply of food stamps for 40mn Americans across the country. Thousands of flights have been cancelled.
US media reported that the administration had ordered states to stop distributing full food aid for the month. The move came after the Supreme Court on Friday evening temporarily blocked a judge’s order directing the benefits be released in full while an appeal is heard.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy warned on Sunday that air traffic would “slow to a trickle” over the Thanksgiving holiday on November 27, when many Americans typically fly across the country to visit their families.
“You’re going to have massive disruption,” said Duffy, speaking on Fox News on Sunday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates air travel in the US, ordered airlines to begin reducing flight numbers from Friday, rising to a 10 per cent reduction by November 14.
Air traffic controllers are among the federal workers who have not been paid in recent weeks. Duffy has said many of them are turning to second jobs to meet their financial commitments.
“I think we’re going to see [very few] air traffic controllers . . . coming to work, which means you’ll have a few flights taking off and landing at our different airports across the country out of the thousands of flights that happen every day to move people around the country for this great American holiday,” Duffy said on Sunday.
A further 1,400 flights were cancelled in the US on Sunday morning, according to the FlightAware tracking service.
Republican congressional leaders have called for Democrats to agree to a stop-gap legislative measure to keep funding at current levels. Democrats have insisted they will not agree until Republicans reverse planned cuts to healthcare credits that are set to lapse at the end of the year.
US President Donald Trump launched a flurry of posts on his Truth Social website over the weekend attacking health insurance companies and criticising the Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as “Obamacare”.
On Saturday, Trump demanded that money be sent “DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE” to cover healthcare costs, railing against “THE “FAT CAT” INSURANCE COMPANIES” and the “CORRUPT SYSTEM OF HEALTHCARE”.
Trump also repeated his calls to Republican lawmakers to scrap the filibuster — a rule that requires most bills to pass with a 60-vote majority to become law.
“Whether we make a Deal or not, THE REPUBLICANS MUST “BLOW UP” THE FILIBUSTER, AND APPROVE HUNDREDS OF LONG SOUGHT, BUT NEVER GOTTEN, POLICY WINS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
On Sunday, he repeated his pledge to give some Americans a $2,000 “dividend” payment, funded in part by revenue from his tariffs.
Bessent later said the payment could be made via tax cuts.
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