TSA Agent Calls Out ‘Entitled’ Passengers Who Blame Bad Travel Experiences On Workers Forced To Work For Free
Frame Stock Footage | ShutterstockA TSA agent is calling out passengers, blaming her and her colleagues for the massive travel delays swamping American airports due to the Trump Administration's refusal to fund the Transportation Security Administration during the current partial shutdown of the government.
Lines at major American airports have extended to upwards of six hours, with queues snaking all the way outside airport terminals. And as usual, some irate passengers seem to be missing the point entirely and placing the blame squarely on the TSA agents, who are currently working for free as they struggle to handle the load.
A TSA agent is calling out 'entitled' passengers, who are blaming her for their bad travel experiences.
The TSA agent said that she's been left angry and mystified by the blame she regularly receives from passengers, particularly those who didn't leave enough time for screening.
But far worse, she said, is the blowback she and her colleagues are now receiving on a daily basis as TSA lines stretch over six hours in some locations and the situation spirals so out of control that airlines have begun to allow passengers to rebook for free.
She described being yelled at and rushed by "entitled" passengers who look no further than social media for their information about what's going down at the airport. She also described being berated in social media comments by people who told her she had no right to complain because she "should have saved up money" so she wouldn't have to work during the government shutdown.
"Our livelihoods are being dangled in front of our faces," she said. "...When you're not given a choice, against all the odds, and you still gotta show up? Then you can come talk to me. But if you're not the one in this uniform, sitting in our shoes, in our seats, sitting in this grief as we're experiencing it, shut the [expletive] up."
TSA agents are being forced to work for free as the President refuses to fund the agency.
She is only one of myriad TSA agents whose livelihoods are being used as pawns in a political game. Project 2025, a PDF of which was readily available on the internet for the entirety of 2024, is explicit about its plans for TSA: Strip its employees of union protections and privatize it into a for-profit business run by corporations. The Trump Administration has made three separate attempts, the latest in January, to execute its plans, all of which were struck down in court for their illegal violations of labor law.
Now, the Administration seems to be taking another route: bring the country's transit system to its knees by hobbling airports with a government shutdown that eliminates TSA funding. President Trump has refused to accept a Republican-approved bipartisan plan to end the shutdown presented to him by Republican Senate Majority Leader Tom Thune.
Instead, he has deployed ICE agents to airports to "help" TSA. Innumerable social media videos allege that said agents are standing around doing nothing, watching idly as TSA agents struggle to deal with the crowds.
The TSA debacle is the government's fault, and now even airlines are fighting back.
Unfortunately, what is happening in America's airports right now is political, and the issue only seems to be making the divide gripping the nation more pronounced.
Anyway, there may well be a light at the end of the tunnel of the TSA debacle. The situation has spiraled so out of control that airlines are now fighting back, with Delta Airlines announcing that they are suspending their special treatment of members of Congress that allows them to skip TSA lines for speed and safety reasons.
The airlines say that until the government shutdown ends, members of Congress will be treated like any other passenger. That doesn't solve the problem of the President's refusal to accept even a Republican-approved plan to do so, but it's something.
Until then, TSA agents will continue having to work for free while being blamed for the actions of the very government this country chose in November of 2024. "People are literally coming to work with nothing to give and nothing to come home to. Have some Grace, please," she pleaded at the end of her video, before adding a pointed parting thought: "For the rest of y'all, this is what y'all voted for. I hope you're happy."
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
