Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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My visits to Delta, Atlanta airport and beyond showed me the spirit of ‘sheer American will’ is alive and well.
President Donald J. Trump delivered a historic State of the Union speech on Feb. 24, and the message was clear: America is winning again. After years of our country being held hostage by woke ideologies, we are back to building things bigger and stronger than ever before.
To see it for myself, we left the D.C. swamp and headed down to Georgia. From the suburbs to downtown Atlanta, I heard firsthand that having a president who puts us first is making life affordable and safe again for Georgians.
I spent some time talking to folks at a local gas station, and I heard the same thing over and over: Trump is bringing the cost of living down.
Under President Joe Biden, Georgia’s gas price average got as high as $4.49 per gallon! Thanks to President Trump unleashing American energy, the Georgians are now seeing gas as cheap as $2.75. Across the country, Americans are on track to save $11 billion on gas in 2026 compared to last year. That’s real money for groceries, mortgage payments and summer vacations.
We’re making sure Americans can actually afford a good-quality car, too. By ending the Biden-Pete Buttigieg electric vehicle mandate, we knocked an average of $1,000 off the price of a new car. Plus, thanks to Trump and the Republicans in Congress, the Working Families Tax Cut Act offers up to $10,000 in tax deductions on auto loans for American-made vehicles. This is the first time this has been done – ever.
Road safety, driver qualifications are prime concerns
Another issue I discussed with Georgians was road safety. After the previous administration allowed millions of undocumented immigrants to flood our borders, our highways became less safe because drivers who couldn’t read our road signs were given licenses to drive 80,000-pound big rigs.
Trump and I heard you loud and clear: Our roads must be safe for American families. We are cracking down on dangerous drivers. We are making sure the trucks sharing the road with your family are operated by law-abiding professionals who can read our road signs and communicate with our law enforcement.
Since implementing these safety standards, we’ve issued a rule to stop unqualified foreign drivers from driving big rigs, put 14,000 drivers out of service for English proficiency failures, launched a nationwide Commercial Driver’s License audit and yanked more than 7,500 unqualified training providers from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration national training registry. We will never stop fighting to protect American families on our roads from unqualified and unsafe drivers.
In his momentous speech, the president reminded us that Americans were the pioneers who first conquered the skies through “sheer American will.” My visits to Delta Air Lines and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport showed me that this spirit is alive and well. America is at the forefront at aviation, because Trump has led the way in unleashing innovation and cutting through red tape.
Americans deserves seamless travel experiences
The Working Families Tax Cut gave us $12.5 billion to modernize our air traffic control system and supercharge our air traffic controller pipeline. At Hartsfield-Jackson, we are working to update the telecoms network by next summer, replace the paper flight strips with electronic ones by October and start installing the new radars and radios.
We are moving at the “speed of Trump” because the Americans deserve a seamless travel experience and the safest skies in the world.
My time in Georgia proved what the president recently said: There is no challenge we can’t overcome. From the back roads in South Georgia to the world’s busiest airport, Trump’s Department of Transportation is working around the clock to deliver a Golden Age of Travel for the American people.
We’re building a future that reflects the greatness of our people – because we have a president who knows exactly who he works for. America first.