The union representing US Transportation Security Administration workers has raised alarms over a Trump administration plan to expand the privatisation of airport security checkpoints, warning it puts profit ahead of passenger safety. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is exploring legal options to challenge the "TSA Gold+" programme, which would hand control of screening and its technology to private contractors at airports in Tampa, Charleston and Des Moines, with affected union staff losing their contracts and benefits.

AFGE national president Everett Kelley called the move a "step backwards" from the security system Congress created after the 11 September 2001 attacks and the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, saying such changes should not be made without input from Congress, airports, passengers or TSA staff. Tampa-based union local president Chris Finlay cited a past experience where a contractor cut promised pay soon after taking over, and recalled a 2015 case at another Florida airport where a contractor's employee was sacked for reporting that a knife had passed through screening. Gold+ builds on other privatisation efforts, including a screening partnership programme expanding to 220 airports while cutting roughly 4,500 posts, and proposed 2027 budget cuts that would eliminate 8,400 screening officer roles, about 14% of the workforce; officials have also floated using artificial intelligence to replace some screeners.