Person
U.S. Secretary of Transportation, overseeing federal agencies including the FAA and NHTSA and setting policies like fuel economy standards.
Transportation Department would give communities with high marriage and fertility rates a 10% transit funding boost, Vox reports. Vox's writer argues the criteria could cost the transit-reliant families they appear to favor.
Reality
Trump signed an order Monday letting anyone buy tax-exempt red-dye diesel and said it would save truckers more than $100 per fill-up. How much fleets actually save depends on four federal departments expanding access and on states choosing to suspend their own diesel taxes.
Perspective Coverage
7 publishersReality
Five environmental groups asked a federal appeals court to review the Trump administration's cut of 2031 fuel economy targets to 34.9 mpg from a projected 50.4. Automaker and fleet plans built on the looser target now depend on a rule the petitioners want stopped.
Reality
Ford CEO Jim Farley says Europe is too late to stop Chinese carmakers, which sold one in seven Western European battery EVs in early 2026. He wants Washington to take its time before letting them sell in the US.
Reality
NHTSA projects the Trump administration's final fuel economy rule will leave the 2031 fleet average at 34.9 mpg, down from 50.4 mpg under Biden-era rules. For automakers, the harder question is how long the lower target lasts, and a Kelley Blue Book editor gives it two to three years.
Reality
Raja Krishnamoorthi's letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pairs 43 catalogued videos of sleeping Tesla drivers with the in-car message that invites a driver the car has flagged as drowsy to switch on Full Self-Driving.
Reality
The airlines spent weeks asking the FAA to narrow SMART, and the version debuting this month hands controllers route advice at the three Washington-area airports under a 90-day test. The agency's own officials describe it as both record speed and a slow roll.
Reality
The order also requires GM to make location tracking easy to switch off and to let drivers see and delete what its Smart Driver feature collected. It binds GM alone, and only for five years.
Reality
The US transportation secretary's 8 September letter objects to Ford's 66-34 joint venture with Geely in Spain. European lawmakers are drafting a law that would make a capped Chinese stake the price of entry.
Reality
Trump has floated $5,000 DOGE dividends and $2,000 tariff rebates since taking office. The only household cash Congress has enacted is a tax-free $1,000 grant for children born in the next few years.
Reality
Washington is now treating quayside power as supply-chain policy. The scope it has put in front of two ports reaches beyond megawatts, into insurance, port acceptance and mariner training.
Reality
A two-hour Minneapolis radar outage disrupted 1,100 flights. The Verge argues it is the bill for a handoff from Musk's DOGE to Thiel's Palantir, with none of the new money going to staffing.
Reality