Trump Rejects Elon Musk’s Offer To Pay TSA Screeners — Security Lines Expected To Spiral

With the partial government shutdown snarling TSA security lines across the country, world’s richest man Elon Musk offered to fund TSA salaries. The Trump administration took the offer seriously, considered it, and rejected the offer which would have cost Musk about $20 million a day.

• They believe it’s unnecessary as the shutdown will end soon
  
• And that there would likely be legal challenges

I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2026

I explained the Musk cannot personally pay TSA screeners directly under 18 U.S.C. § 209 which bars executive branch employees from receiving salary or salary supplements from any source other than the United States.

However, I outlined a path uniquely applicable to the Department of Homeland Security (TSA’s parent agency) that makes it at least plausibly legal.

1. The 2004 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act section 507 made the DHS Gifts and Donations account available for the DHS Secretary to “accept, hold, administer and utilize” gifts and bequests, and it says gifts are to be used according to donor terms to the greatest extent practicable. In other words, Homeland Security can accept and use a restricted donation.

2. While 6 U.S.C. § 453(b) generally says DHS gifts cannot be accepted or used unless specifically permitted in advance in an appropriations act, section 507 of the 2004 Appropriations Act for the agency can be cleanly argued as permission – that the Secretary can accept the money (into the Gifts and Donations account) and can use it consistent with the donor’s terms.

That’s far less of a stretch than the legal theory under which Tim Mellon reportedly donated $130 million to the Pentagon to pay servicemembers in late October 2025, during the fall government shutdown. The Pentagon said it had accepted the gift “under its general gift acceptance authority” for the stated purpose of offsetting service members’ salaries and benefits.

10 U.S.C. § 2601 allows Department of Defense spending of gift funds without a specific appropriation only for specific activities like wounded servicemembers, dependents, and survivors. That donation, which the Trump administration accepted, was probably illegal. So much is nowadays that goes unchallenged! It’s hard to imagine legal challenges to paying screeners who are showing up to work, and unsnarling security queues. Who even wants to be that least popular plaintiff in the country?

On Monday, President Trump had said Musk’s offer was great “let him do that.” But he is not letting Musk do that.

Without long TSA lines, there’s little pressure on Democrats to agree to fund the Department of Homeland Security without significant concessions on immigration enforcement. Republicans fear they wouldn’t have the votes of their own members in the Senate to pass funding through reconciliation (without significant inducements), so they need Democrats to vote with them. While the lines risk being blamed by voters on the administration responsible for TSA, they’re reluctant to give up leverage especially when they think a deal is on the table.

If the shutdown doesn’t end soon, the scenes of 4-hour TSA queues are expected to worsen. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said some airports could be forced to close due to lack of screeners. More and more TSA employees are likely to stop showing up for work as time passes, because deferred pay doesn’t cover rent and groceries, and they’ll need to pick up work elsewhere in the meantime.

If you do need to travel, and you’re flying from an airport where call-outs have been significant, your best bets are CLEAR Concierge (from $99) if you’re a CLEAR member and CLEAR is open at your airport, as you get escorted to the front of that line and TSA Touchless for PreCheck members who sign up through their participating airline, because that’s a separate line which dumps out at the front of PreCheck and it’s new – so few have signed up yet.