25 years after 9/11, airport security gets second look from Trump

As the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Trump administration has moved to roll back many of the expanded airport security measures that were adopted after those attacks. Officials have revisited the heightened screening posture that followed the hijackings and begun scaling back some of the procedures put in place to prevent aircraft from again being used as weapons.

The hijackings in 2001 prompted a dramatic increase in aviation screening and other security protocols across the United States. Those post‑9/11 measures created a new baseline for how passengers and baggage were checked before boarding, and at times included even more restrictive steps intended to close gaps exploited by the attackers.

Now, on the anniversary that prompted those changes, the administration has taken a second look and trimmed back portions of the expanded regime at airports nationwide. The timing of the reassessment highlights a notable shift in federal aviation security policy as the country observes the milestone.

Details about which specific procedures have been altered were not provided in the summary account, but the overarching change reflects a re-evaluation of the balance between heightened security protocols adopted after 2001 and current operational or policy priorities.