Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost targeted the Trump administration’s handling of a nationwide flight disruption on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, The Daily Beast reported. Jost poked fun at the official explanation provided by Sean Duffy during a morning press conference.
“The scary thing by far about all these flights getting grounded was the messaging from the normally dependable Trump administration,” Jost said.
“First, they said it was a telecommunications outage ‘as of now,’” Jost said.
“Why add ‘as of now’?”
Duffy attributed the travel crisis to routine maintenance work scheduled during peak afternoon hours. Jost questioned the logic behind taking down an entire aviation network for wire upgrades during a busy travel window.
“Sean Duffy said the whole situation was the result of a contractor upgrading copper wire to fiber optic cable,” Jost said. “So one guy switched out one wire and took out all planes?”
Co-anchor Michael Che turned his attention to Markwayne Mullin during the Weekend Update segment.
“DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin tried to calm fears by saying this is not a 9/11,” Che said. “Which he knew because Rudy Giuliani didn’t see his shadow.”
He pointed out reports regarding an executive scandal while questioning statements from President Donald Trump about his prior knowledge of the matter.
“So this concludes yet another game of ‘dementia or lying?’” Jost said. “And as it turns out it, was a trick question: It’s always both.”
Jost spoke from the Weekend Update desk on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026.
Sean Duffy said that the nationwide disruption stemmed from routine maintenance work involving fiber optic cable upgrades.
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