MORNING GLORY: When Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, voters never forgot. Nor did the Soviets

In 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) left their posts and went on strike. 13,000 of the 17,500 members of PATCO went out to the picket line, seeking higher wages, more benefits, a 32-hour workweek and exemption from various Civil Service rules. Approximately 13,000 of the 17,500 PATCO members participated.  

The problem: The strike was illegal and federal law clearly said so. President Ronald Reagan issued the strikers an ultimatum: Get back to work or be fired. Some returned. Most did not and most were fired. Reagan was going to enforce the law. Many noticed the firmness with which Reagan acted and how quickly he did so, especially the Soviets, who never doubted Reagan’s word thereafter.  

The PATCO strikers of 1981 were replaced with a combination of 3,000 supervisors, those who had not gone out on strike, and 900 military controllers. An aggressive hiring and training program made up the difference. In 1996, President Bill Clinton ended Reagan's prohibition on rehiring PATCO strikers as air traffic controllers and a few hundred returned to work after more than a decade-and-a-half in the wilderness. 

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Since the PATCO strike, many presidents have faced "PATCO moments," for example when President Barack Obama laid down a "red line" for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, warning Assad not to use chemical weapons against his own people. Assad used the weapons anyway and despite the horror, Obama blinked and did not strike Syria, settling for a fake deal done with the Russians to remove Syria’s chemical arsenal (an arsenal with which the Israelis are dealing with still to this day as Assad hid and held on to many of his worst WMDs.)  The world —and history— watched and immediately had Obama’s measure as a weak man of passing significance, almost a "pop president."

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President Donald Trump now faces two PATCO moments. The first is unfolding in Los Angeles. Trump has opened strongly. But as longtime journalist John O’Sullivan pointed out to me this week, the key question is, will Trump do the same thing twice when a second riot erupts somewhere else, or is this a one-off. My bet is that Trump will simply not let federal agents be attacked anywhere, anytime. We shall see.

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Then there is Iran. Trump seems genuinely to prefer to avoid a bombing campaign against the Iranian nuclear facilities and their missiles factories. But Trump has laid down a red line too, just as Reagan and Obama did —no enrichment, period— and Trump doesn’t want the Obama reputation attached to him and the country. Trump sounded less upbeat this week about the latest round of talks with the Iranians and there is certainly an attempt underway by the mullahs to string the U.S. along. Trump is not the sort of man who takes easily to being played. 

If federal agents are either killed or seriously injured by the mobs, my bet is Trump follows his Los Angeles precedent. And if Iran rushes to "break out" with a nuclear weapon or simply refuses to abandon enrichment, Trump’s choices will be stark: Accept an enormous set-back to the West and his own legacy, or act. Time is running short. It is a "PATCO moment."

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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