Let’s re-regulate fucking air travel again...........

Ryanair chief unloads on ‘liar’ Trump in rare corporate blast at US president

Airline boss Michael O’Leary also tells POLITICO what the EU’s top three achievements have been … and why “Parliament is a talking shop of idiots.”

By Tommaso Lecca

U.S. President Donald Trump is a "liar" who is "historically wrong" on many of the major geopolitical issues facing the world in 2026, fumed Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary in an interview with POLITICO.

The outspoken airline CEO's comments mark a rare broadside against Trump from the corporate world, where business titans usually aim to avoid offending the mercurial American leader.

O'Leary laid into Trump — whom he last talked to in 2016 — for not supporting Ukraine against Russia and for imposing tariffs that have upended global trade.

“I think Trump is historically wrong on Ukraine and on Russia, he’s historically wrong on tariffs,” said O’Leary, who did grant that the president was right in complaining that European countries aren't pulling their weight on defense.

O'Leary added that if he were an American, he would be “a natural Republican.” However, he would not sign up to a party led by Trump. “I don’t have any faith or trust in Trump, who has proven himself to be again and again a liar,” he said.

It's not the first time that O'Leary has lambasted Trump, making him a curio in the corporate world, which has been largely deferential to the U.S. president since he returned to office. However, O'Leary has long said that Ryanair has no intention of flying across the Atlantic. The airline is also one of Boeing's largest customers, insulating it from political blowback.

Defend freedoms

Discount airline boss O'Leary, who has long railed at what he considers excessive red tape he says is choking EU companies, added that the twin threats of Trump and Russia mean Europe should slash “stupid travel taxes” and regulations to regain its competitive mojo.

“There’s a war in Ukraine. You’ve [got] Trump at the White House. No, let’s re-regulate fucking air travel again,” he said.

Political and economic shifts mean that the EU should defend the single market — one of its greatest accomplishments, said O'Leary, who has often bashed the bloc's political leadership using salty language.

“I am a huge supporter of the single market in Europe, it has been the greatest success of certainly my lifetime,” O’Leary said Wednesday on the sidelines of a press conference in Brussels.

The Ryanair CEO listed what he feels are the top three achievements of the EU: “Low fare air travel, roaming charges and Erasmus, which has been one of the great ways of knitting young people … bringing Europe much closer together. But we’re going to have to start defending these freedoms.”

'Talking shop of idiots'

But O’Leary lashed out at efforts to increase taxes and regulation — from Belgium’s proposed higher aviation tax aimed at boosting more sustainable transportation, like rail, to the European Parliament’s proposal to increase passenger rights, including allowing them to bring more luggage aboard for free.

He called Parliament’s draft “a mad, illegal proposal,” and added: “The Parliament is a talking shop of idiots where all they do is invent, impose more costs and more regulation on European consumers and citizens.”

He also slammed Belgium’s aviation tax hike — which the country’s transport minister defended in an interview with POLITICO. 

In response to the tax proposal, Ryanair said it would cut 1 million seats at Brussels South Charleroi Airport in 2026.

Since the tax raise wasn’t scrapped, O’Leary announced Wednesday that Ryanair will reduce travel capacity in the country by an additional million seats in 2027 and cut its presence at the Charleroi base from 19 to 15 planes.

Rather than taxing passengers, O’Leary called for the bloc’s Emissions Trading System carbon pricing scheme to also apply to long-haul flights to destinations outside the EU. Currently, the ETS only applies to intra-EU flights and does not affect more polluting intercontinental routes.

“If you're really serious about the environmental taxes here in Belgium, put ETS on American flights, put ETS on Asian flights and put ETS on Gulf flights,” he said.

But that could spark a clash with the U.S., which has warned against climate efforts that affect its businesses. This is “never going to happen while Trump is at the White House,” O'Leary said.