President Donald Trump has blamed diversity and inclusion for one of the deadliest plane crashes in U.S. history.
The commander-in-chief referred to the collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter in Washington D.C., which claimed the lives of 67 individuals, as a ‘tragedy of terrible proportions.’
He added that those flying the Black Hawk helicopter should have ‘seen where they were going’.
During a speech at the White House, Trump expressed that the tragedy could have been avoided entirely, criticizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) recruiting practices within federal agencies.
He added that he had some ‘pretty good ideas’ of how the disaster occurred and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.
Furthermore, Trump emphasized his prioritization of ‘safety,’ contrasting it with what he perceived as a focus on politics by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, while also launching a scathing critique against former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, labeling him a ‘disaster’ in a remarkable denouncement of past administrations.
‘He was a disaster as a Mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls***’, Trump said of Buttigieg.
Trump added: ‘The initiative is part of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) diversity and inclusion hiring plan. Think of that.’
Then he insisted that federal agencies need to be hiring based on intelligence rather than on diversity. He added that Air Traffic Controllers need to be ‘geniuses’.
As a reference, he pointed to a report from within the FAA that the workforce was ‘too white.’
On Wednesday night, American Eagle flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training flight as it approached the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
There were 60 passengers and four crew aboard the PSA flight out of Wichita, and three members of the military aboard the Black Hawk.
All are believe to have perished after the search and rescue transitioned to a recovery phase.
Divers have been in the frigid waters of the Potomac River overnight tyring to find bodies as investigators tried to piece together what led to the deadliest U.S. air crash since 2019.
Only under questioning by reporters did Trump touch on some of the other areas being identified as potential contributors to the tragedy.
He was asked about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement that the Army Black Hawk was doing ‘annual retraining, night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission.’
Trump did not appear to immediately know about continuity of government – which refers to how the government functions during a disaster – when asked about it.
‘I don’t know what that refers to, but they were practicing. They were – they do that. They call it practicing, and that’s something that should be done. It’s only continuity in the sense that we want to have very good people, and that has to be in continuity, and that’s what they referred to,’ Trump said.
Nor did he address the heavy volume of flights into DC, something both of Virginia’s Democratic senators have raised.
Instead, Trump, who has his own plane that was parked at DCA Thursday, spoke of his own experience and the plane and altitude being at the same altitude.
‘You had a pilot problem. Because it was visual. It was a very clear night … It was cold, but clear and clear as you could be.’
‘The American Airlines plane had lights blazing. They had all their landing lights on,’ he said.
You can stop a helicopter very quickly. It had the ability to go up or down, had the ability to turn, and the turn it made was not the correct turn, obviously. And it did somewhat the opposite of what it was told.
They shouldn’t have been at the same height, because if it wasn’t the same height, you could have gone under it or over it. And nobody realized,’ Trump said.
In another demonstration of how Trump and his new cabinet members are marching in the same direction, both Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Hegseth also blamed DEI during their own brief remarks.
‘We can only accept the best and the brightest in positions of safety,’ Duffy said, echoing Trump’s language.
‘When you don’t have the best standards one who you’re hiring … it puts stresses on the people who are already there,’ said Vice President J.D. Vance.
Trump read from what he says was the FAA website listing diversity categories.
‘The FAA website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualified for the position of a controller of air planes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot. A little dot on the map. A runway.’
Trump came to the briefing room for his first exchange with the press there in his second term. He began by holding a moment of silence for the victims and their families.
It was the seen of numerous tense updates during the coronavirus pandemic during his first.
All 49 seats were occupied in the James Brady Briefing Room well before the start time, and correspondents stood two deep in the narrow aisles.
‘It’s sardine time,’ said one late arrival.
The lights and the bodies made for a warm, intense environment.
Trump’s new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the crash was ‘preventable,’ and his new Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth said the military crew were engaged in an annual training exercise and had night-vision gear.
Trump’s appearance came after Trump issued a pair of online posts about the tragedy.
But he chose to seize control of communications operation.
His new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a video statement but nixed a planned briefing with the Pentagon press corps.
‘I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. ‘Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.’
That followed an angrier post overnight, when Trump blamed the Blackhawk helicopter involved in the crash as well as air traffic controllers.
‘The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn,’ Trump wondered online.
‘Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!’
