After a Mexican Navy ship crashed into New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge this past weekend, Sen. Chuck Schumer attempted to cast blame on President Trump and DOGE.
Yes, really.
Schumer (tried) to say that, somehow, the Trump administration and DOGE were to blame for the accident because of a hiring freeze and several cuts made to rid our government of waste.
Watch for yourself:
Mexican Navy ship loses control and rams into a bridge.
Chuck Schumer: Trump and DOGE must be held accountable.
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) May 19, 2025
Schumer echoed his claim in a post on X:
With the Brooklyn Bridge strike last night:
I’m fighting for answers about whether Trump and DOGE have impacted water traffic control.
We know they’ve been meddling with U.S. Coast Guard staffing.
Trump relieved Admiral Linda Fagan as Commandant of the USCG, and that position…
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 18, 2025
With the Brooklyn Bridge strike last night:
I’m fighting for answers about whether Trump and DOGE have impacted water traffic control.
We know they’ve been meddling with U.S. Coast Guard staffing. Trump relieved Admiral Linda Fagan as Commandant of the USCG, and that position is still vacant.
And the hiring freeze has limited the ability for the USCG to staff up the Vehicle Traffic Service, that’s their traffic control operation that acts like Air Traffic Control but on water.
We need action for our national security, infrastructure protection, and public safety.
How stupid.
Folks on X didn’t buy it.
Take a look at these reactions to Schumer’s post:
It’s definitely Trump’s fault that a Mexican navy ship experienced a mechanical failure and lost propulsion.
It’s definitely not the Mexican navy’s fault for not maintaining their own ships.
— Storm (@stormrobinson) May 18, 2025
Literally, your first and only response to tragedy is, “How do I blame my enemies?”
Gross even for you.
— Small Gov Lizard (@smallgovlizard) May 18, 2025
There is a reason why the Democratic Party has a 20% approval rating and you are a big part of it.
— Scott M. (@ssmusser) May 18, 2025
This user pointed out that the issue was isolated to the ship itself:
The answer is No.
This was an issue on board Cuauhtémoc, the decision to have only one tug, and a wind and current setting them down on the bridge.
The USCG was not involved.
— Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴☠️ (@mercoglianos) May 18, 2025
Now, the U.S. Coast Guard released a statement, denying Schumer’s idiotic take.
Per Fox News:
The Coast Guard rejected Schumer’s claim in a statement of its own. Furthermore, there were no other ships involved in Saturday’s crash that would have involved the VTS.
The Coast Guard told Fox News Digital that VTS was “fully functional during the incident and operating in accordance with established procedures to manage commercial traffic and facilitate safe navigation.”
“Our response included launching a crew from Station New York, establishing a temporary safety zone, and coordinating with NYPD, FDNY, and NYC DOT,” they added.
At this time, an investigation is underway to determine the actual, official cause of the ship’s collision with the bridge.
It appears that there were multiple factors at play here — none of which involved President Trump or DOGE.
AP reported:
When a Mexican navy tall ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, it was maneuvering in turbulent waters. The tide had just turned, and a fast current was heading up the East River as a 10 mph wind set in.
While such hazards are easily handled by an experienced captain, mistakes can be costly in the heavily transited New York harbor, where narrow, curvy channels, winds howling off the jagged Manhattan skyline and whirlpool-like eddies can combine to make for difficult passage.
In the case of the 300-foot (90-meter) Cuauhtemoc, two sailors were killed and 19 were injured Saturday evening when the training ship struck the iconic bridge, toppling the vessel’s three masts like dominoes as it drifted toward a crowded pier. It’s unknown what caused the collision, and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is likely to take months.
Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner who has powered multiple ships through the New York harbor, said all those “worst-case scenarios” — the ship’s height, a strong current, heavy wind and the absence of a more controlled tugboat escort — all contributed to the tragedy.
“The prudent thing would’ve been to leave two hours earlier, when the tide was going out. That would’ve been the ideal time,” said Mercogliano, who writes a widely followed shipping blog. “But I don’t think they ever envisioned that their engine would’ve propelled them into the bridge.”
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