M. Erami

For weeks, @SecScottBessent had his entire department consumed by a single obsession: trying to ground Iran's civilian airliners. He has blacklisted 27 Iranian airlines, suspended overflight licenses and pressed neighbors to shut their skies to Iranian carriers. He wanted Iranian families stranded, patients cut off from treatment, and travelers pushed onto costly overland routes. Then, yesterday, America grounded itself. For hours, the FAA halted flights nationwide, the longest stoppage since 9/11, because, as it claims, its own aging, overloaded equipment gave out. More than 10,000 flights were disrupted. No sanctions required. An administration that chases aircraft brokers from Kazakhstan to Malaysia cannot keep its own air traffic control online. It finds endless ingenuity to punish Iranian travelers, yet little for the creaking system Americans fly on every day. Had it spent half that zeal on its own skies, Friday's meltdown might never have happened. This is what happens when foreign policy becomes an exercise in cruelty. Pointless sadism abroad, criminal neglect at home. That's how they're "Making America Great Again"!