Jimmy Kimmel went back a decade to use Donald Trump’s own words against him recently. Amid the TSA “falling apart,” the late-night show host quoted a tweet where Trump blamed Barack Obama for the chaos within TSA and at the airports.
“All the tumult did not stop the President from playing golf this weekend,” he said, per Huffpost. “Which made me nostalgic for this classic tweet from 2016.”
And this is where Trump’s 2016 tweet comes in. Kimmel read, “While our wonderful President was out playing golf all day, the TSA is falling apart… Airports a total disaster!” At the time, Obama was president, and Trump was targeting him with the post.
Kimmel didn’t miss a beat. He then delivered the punchline, “If Donald Trump ever met President Trump, he would hate him.”
A Trump tweet from 2016 aired on Jimmy Kimmel last night:
‘While our wonderful president was out playing golf all day, the TSA is falling apart, just like our government! Airports a total disaster!'”
Oh, who said that? Donald Trump said that.” pic.twitter.com/V4dUfssAuA
— Annie van Leur (@AnnevanLeur) March 24, 2026
It wasn’t long before social media joined the conversation. They latched onto the core of the situation which is payment of some government workers, while others get nothing.
“The ICE agents are getting paid. Why not cancel ICE, and pay TSA,” said one person. “Pay the TSA. Send ICE to Iran,” another suggested. A third pointed out, “The DHS has ample money to pay ICE but not TSA.”
One user made a comment about the way the Presidents were spending their free time. They posted, “Millions are stuck in airports, TSA workers unpaid, families delayed—all because leadership chose golf over duty.”
TSA workers have not been paid since mid-February with some reporting wages as low as $4. Now, many of them are quitting or staying away from their jobs even though they are regarded as essential workers. Trump’s solution was to send in ICE so that they could carry some of the burden and maintain security at the airports. However, queues are becoming longer at airports, and frustration levels are rising.
During the Obama era, more people wanted to travel after the recession, but there wasn’t enough in the budget to hire more TSA agents. This led to long lines and security concerns at the major airports.
Kimmel was trying to show that Trump was hyper critical of Obama, yet a decade later he is doing the same thing. Obama was playing golf when Trump thought he should have tried to resolve the crisis. Yet, Trump was also playing golf over the past weekend.
🚨JUST IN: Donald Trump arrives at his West Palm Beach golf club in Florida as the Iran war enters its fourth week and gas prices are rising!
pic.twitter.com/XCKtU5XHum
— Lucas Sanders 👊🏽🔥🇺🇸 (@LucasSa56947288) March 22, 2026
And some would argue that while the TSA and airport crisis was huge in 2016, this one is also at a critical point. It has reached such a scale that hundreds of TSA agents are quitting, and Trump had to send in ICE agents.
To make matters worse, some TSA agents report that they are not being prioritized. Even though they are regarded as essential workers, some of them have faced more than one government shutdowns within six months. This means that they have been shortchanged with their pay and are still trying to recover from the past shutdowns.
While Kimmel was making light of the situation, the TSA crisis is serious. But he also showed that past statements — even if they are lighthearted social media comments — can come back to haunt you. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, Trump needs to show how he plans to guide the U.S. through this particular event as frustration continues to mount.
