Mayor Jacob Frey suggests Trump to 'hire out more TSA agents' despite DHS shutdown limitations

MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS: A comment from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is drawing attention for his seemingly basic misunderstanding of how government shutdowns work.

During a Sunday, March 22, interview on MS NOW, Frey criticized President Donald Trump’s approach to airport security, and while doing so, suggested a solution that isn’t even possible under current conditions, exposing a major shortfall in awareness for a sitting mayor.

Jacob Frey shockingly suggests to 'hire TSA agents'

Responding to Trump’s warning about deploying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to airports, Frey dismissed the idea and offered what he framed as a straightforward fix.

“When he says that he's going to do security like no one has ever seen before, he doesn't actually mean that he's going to keep people secure.”

He then proposed what he believed should happen instead “If the goal here was safety at airports, he could hire out more TSA agents that do an incredible job at keeping our airports safe.”

Frey further added, “If the goal was keeping our streets safe in our cities, he would work with cities around hiring additional police officers and creating the kind of safety infrastructure that we need to keep people safe.”

But that’s where the problem lies. Frey suggested hiring more Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at a time when the federal government, including the TSA, is operating under a shutdown, where new hiring is not permitted.

In other words, the solution he offered is impossible right now.

Jacob Frey doubles down without addressing the reality

Frey didn’t acknowledge that limitation and instead escalated his criticism, questioning the intent behind Trump’s approach.

“But of course, we all know that's not the goal. The goal is to scare people.”

He further argued that the strategy could harm economic activity, saying, “And for someone that states that they care so much about bringing the economy back, causing a ton of fear in airports preventing the kind of safe air travel that we need for commerce is not a good mechanism to do it.”

Yet throughout his remarks, the central contradiction remained unaddressed that the hiring solution he was advocating cannot be executed under the very shutdown conditions his own party is entangled in.

The ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding standoff has already begun affecting airport operations, with TSA agents working under strain and long lines building across major travel hubs.

While Democrats, including Frey’s political allies, have pushed back against reopening DHS without policy changes, those same conditions are what prevent immediate fixes like expanding TSA staffing.