Schumer Gets a Smackdown After Trying to Pin Bridge Collision on Trump
“There it is. The dumbest f***ing post I’ve seen on X today. Are you this incapable of logic because of Trump? Go put more cheese on raw hamburgers or something.”
News that the Mexican Navy’s tall ship Cuauhtémoc crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge late Saturday night came as a shock. How could the captain of a vessel with a 147-foot main mast believe it could safely pass beneath a bridge with just 135 feet of clearance at its center?
The following day, reports indicated that a mechanical failure had caused the ship to lose steering control, leaving it vulnerable to the East River’s strong currents, which pushed it toward the bridge.
Predictably, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) suggested that President Donald Trump might be to blame for the incident. In a Sunday afternoon post on X, the senator said he was “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.
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
Schumer’s baseless allegations didn’t go over well. Here are a couple of reactions to his disingenuous post:
There it is. The dumbest fcking post I’ve seen on X today.
Are you this incapable of logic because of Trump?
Go put more cheese on raw hamburgers or something.
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) May 18, 2025
You are grasping at straws! Did DOGE cause the MEXICAN ship to lose power?
No one takes @thedemocrats seriously – TDS has caused y’all to lose your f***ing minds!— Border Security Is National Security 🇺🇸🟦 (@etn_patriot) May 19, 2025
Worse still, Senate Democrats issued a press release titled, “Following Brooklyn Bridge Strike, Leader Schumer: Trump Administration Must Answer For Meddling With U.S. Count Guard Staffing; Leader Demands Investigation Into Potential DOGE Impacts On Vessel Traffic Control & Entire USCG Operation To Protect All Bridges & Waterways Across Country.”
Yes, that really is the title.
The absurd summary that followed sounded more like satire than a serious news release from a U.S. senator. Worse still, it was published after Schumer had been “fully briefed” by authorities on the accident.
At any rate, the Department of Homeland Security promptly corrected the record, leaving Schumer — who rarely misses an opportunity to take a swing at Trump — looking like an idiot.
In the X post below, DHS calls Schumer’s accusations “FALSE.” In fact, the post claims that the U.S. Coast Guard has been “exempt from hiring freezes.”
Minority Leader Schumer’s accusations that a hiring freeze led to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Vessel Traffic Services not being adequately staffed are FALSE. The US Coast Guard has been fully supported and been exempt from hiring freezes. Additionally, this incident had nothing to do… https://t.co/BR4iJX2oX9
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 18, 2025
The Coast Guard also responded to Schumer’s misguided accusations in a Sunday press release. It said, “Sector New York immediately launched a crew from Coast Guard Station New York to the scene and established a safety zone from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Manhattan Bridge. New York Vessel Traffic Services suspended commercial traffic in the area.”
In other words, they did precisely what they were supposed to do.
The problem with Schumer is his desperation to win back support from constituents, which took a sharp hit after his March vote in favor of the GOP-led spending bill to avert a government shutdown. His favorability among New York Democrats has since fallen to record lows, fueling speculation that he could face a serious primary challenge from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)—assuming she doesn’t pursue a presidential bid instead.
Last month, CNN data analyst Harry Enten highlighted a Siena College poll showing Schumer’s favorability among New York Democrats had plunged to just 52% — a stunning 21-point drop since December. A very fired-up Enten called the results “almost unfathomable.”
“They simply don’t like the job he is doing as Senate [minority] leader,” Enten said, citing a new Marist University survey that asked New York Democrats whether Schumer should keep his leadership role. Fifty percent said yes, while 48% said no.
“This screams — sirens should be going off — primary challenge, primary challenge, primary challenge!”
WATCH: CNN analyst shocked by Schumer's “almost unfathomable” favorability drop, saying it “screams” a primary challenge
Schumer's favorability is down 21 pts from Dec. & just 50% of Dems say he should remain leader. pic.twitter.com/8favFkdK3x
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) April 25, 2025
Additionally, Schumer has come under fire for refusing to answer questions about what he may have known regarding former President Joe Biden’s declining cognitive abilities.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
They don’t call this putz “Schmuck” Schumer, for nothing.
I love the way they’re referring to him as Leader Schumer. None of the precedents that come to mind are flattering. At least they don’t call him Fearless Leader.
“Sector New York immediately launched a crew from Coast Guard Station New York to the scene and established a safety zone”
Yes, but did they provide translators?
And did they provide safety nets in case sailors should fall from the masts?
Or were they too busy Guarding the Coast?
And did they provide safety nets in case sailors should fall from the masts?
Technically “yardarms,” but yeah…. the deck can be a long ways down….
They should’ve unfurled their sails. To me that would’ve been a more magnificent sight to behold than sailors and lights on yardarms.
True that the sight of a fully rigged tall ship is great. However, one small problem is the wind. A boat can’t sail directly upwind, especially if it is going against a strong current. Sailboats have to tack upwind and ship like that may need a whole lot of speed and room to tack.
Generally, a sailboat under sail has the right of way versus a power boat. But, there are exceptions such as freighters in a shipping channel or coming into ports. In that case, the “big boat” rules apply. And that section of the river may have been restricted to mechanical power..
Thanks for the comment. You sound like you know what you’re talking about.
The cadets all had safety harnesses on which were clipped onto some system. That is why there were pictures of people hanging from the yardarms. The system worked.
IF you saw the one video which shows the cadets climbing up to the yardarms, you would understand why they couldn’t get down fast, except for cutting the safety harness.
Can’t say that their maintenance of the engine was that great, but the captain/helmsman must have been frantic with the engine stuck in reverse.
It never ends…
As soon as we learned of the collision my wife asked me what excuses the left was going to come up with to try to blame Trump and MAGA. It never occurred to me that they would try to blame an engineering casualty aboard a foreign ship on Trump.
Next up…
Schumer blames Doge cuts for….
Causing understaffed WH medical office to miss Biden;s cancer diagnosis.
Causing understaffed NGOs to fail funneling money to Dem candidates.
Causing understaffed Grey Wizards to fail fighting balrogs.
The WH medical office issue has already been suggested.
Illustrating Schumer double-digit IQ, given doge started in 2025 and Biden’s dependence on WH docs was from 2021-2024.
democrats always say their fightning, While the violent imagery? In reality most of them would loose a fight with a wet noodle.
Rush was correct in referring to that cretin as Chuck U.
The Homeland Security tweet referenced above states that Schumer should get his facts straight before misleading the American public.
That would force him to remain permanently silent.
We don’t call it the Trump *Derangement* Syndrome for nothing.
Chuck is to the Senate as Sovereign Citizens are to YouTube videos.
I’d pay good money to see Chucky tased.
On a loop. On Chive TV.
The person who failed here was the skipper, who should have dropped anchor as soon as he realized he was no longer making way.
He was clearly moving astern in the video. It looked like he was doing better than 5-kn over ground. Not slow, but probably slow enough to drop anchor in an emergency. But, in fairness to the captain, I haven’t looked at the navigational charts for the East River. There are places indicated as ‘no anchoring’ which includes no anchoring even in an emergency situation. A seaway between two DENSELY populated areas like Manhattan & Long Island like has any number of submarine cables. I will be really interested to read the NTSB/Coast Guard report to see if dropping anchor was a feasible emergency action.
I wondered why no attempt at dropping an anchor seemed to have been made much less those sailors heading to the deck from the masts and sheets when it became clear the ship was going to hit the bridge.
Have paddled and raced outrigger canoes under and around that bridge many times. The current can be brutal, combined with tidal flow it can easily exceed 5 Knots if you time it wrong.
If you look at the video showing the boat backing out of dock, relative to the location of the bridge, etc, there wasn’t much time to make that call.
In addition, I saw a picture which showed the bow anchor and it looked kinda puny and more for show. Who knows how much chain and rope they had. In addition to the possibility of the submarine cables, the river bed may have been such that an anchor have have skipped (a hard bed) instead on digging in (a mucky bed).
I just took a look at them. They do look surprisingly undersized, although anchors are generally measured by their holding-power (which leans heavily on its design) and less on their actually weight. You can have have very heavy anchors that don’t produce much holding force and light anchors that do.
In any event, I was going to say: While naval ships are exempted from SOLAS and IMO regulations (the kinds of regulations that govern things like anchor design/size and rode length), they still generally conform to those regs and often FAR exceed them. But, then I remembered this was the Mexican Navy. So, who knows what if any standards they keep. Even before the accident, the ship looked…weathered, put charitably. It looked considerably older than a ship christened in 1982, IMO.
It also takes *time* to run out the anchor and enough chain for it to be usable. It doesn’t stop the ship on a dime the second it touches seabed (like many people might think) The bottom of the river there is paved in cables, and dropping the anchor might mean hitting the bridge *and* ripping out half the communication for the surrounding hundred miles. I deal with networks, and am constantly amazed how one cable cut a hundred miles away will drop connectivity for a dozen offices all at once, despite the distance. Network traffic is bizarre.
Tide coming in , and wind blowing up river…. motoring in reverse just added to the speed. Poor seamanship.
Good YouTube : What’s Going on With Shipping?
Don’t expect the mexican side to do any failure analysis to determine why it happened, or how to prevent it.
These things happen in mexico.
Man, I didn’t realize Trump was so talented. Apparently he’s a ship captain too
NBD. They’re just big garbage trucks with fancy Christmas lights.
I think Schumer’s sarting to get more and more concerned that DOGE is going to go public with a report all of the money that Schumer himself has been raking in from Democrat-based “public works” projects over the past several years
The democrats should have gone with a headline that said: “Trump declares war on Mexico! Sinks Mexican ship!”
Would have been just as fake, but much more entertaining.
LOL.
Although Randolph Hearst still votes D, he’s dead.
Trump could reply “Remember the Maine”
This time we could give Puerto Rico back too.
Let’s not forget that Schumer wrote the amendment to the IRCA 1986 law that allowed massive fraud under Section 210. All anyone had to do to qualify was to say that they worked in agriculture for 90 days to get a green card. Three of the 1st World Trade terrorists had gained legal status through it.
Allegedly they picked lettuce in the Bronx….
the continued stench from the dnc demands immediate attention