PULSE POINTS
WHAT HAPPENED: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed five senior officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), accusing them of abusing a now-abolished aviation security watchlist to target Americans.
WHO WAS INVOLVED: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, TSA officials, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
WHEN & WHERE: The removals were announced on September 30, 2025, following an internal investigation into the TSA’s ‘Quiet Skies’ program.
KEY QUOTE: “These Americans were watchlisted and harassed despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior.” – DHS statement.
IMPACT: The Quiet Skies program has been dismantled, and DHS and TSA have referred the matter to Congress and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division.
IN FULL
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has dismissed five top officials from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for abusing the ‘Quiet Skies’ program—a defunct aviation security watchlist—to harass law-abiding U.S. citizens. According to DHS, these officials had “systematically watchlisted and denied boarding to those who exercised their individual rights and resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] relaxed its indoor mask mandate.”
The agency further accused the TSA of leveraging the January 6, 2021, Capitol protests to blacklist numerous Americans despite no proof of misconduct. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem remarked on X (formerly Twitter) that the TSA had “wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences.”
“President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise,” Noem added.
Launched in 2012 under the former Obama-Biden administration, the Quiet Skies initiative aimed to subject elevated-risk travelers to extra screenings. However, conservatives argue it was weaponized against ideological foes instead of real threats, and the Trump administration shuttered the program in June.
In May 2025, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) exposed that former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard—now serving as President Donald J. Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI)—had been monitored via Quiet Skies on U.S. flights in 2024. Gabbard described it as a program that “violated our constitutional rights and civil liberties, targeting political opponents, and costing taxpayers approximately $200 million per year, all while failing to stop a single terrorist.”
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