President Trump on Thursday appeared to blame diversity initiatives at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for weakening safety following a deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport.
Trump spoke to the press from the White House briefing room about the incident, which he called “a tragedy of terrible proportions.” But his solemn tone quickly gave way to lambasting the Biden and Obama administrations, taking aim specifically at hiring initiatives.
“Brilliant people have to be in those positions,” Trump said.
He cited efforts by the FAA to hire individuals with disabilities, including dwarfism, missing limbs and intellectual disabilities.
“A group within the FAA determined that the workforce was too white, then they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” Trump said. “This was in the Obama administration.”
Trump also blasted
Pete Buttigieg, who served as Transportation secretary during the Biden administration.
“He’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls‑‑‑,” Trump said of Buttigieg. “Well he runs it, 45,000 people, and he’s run it right into the ground with his diversity.”
In
a post on social platform X, Buttigieg called Trump’s comments “despicable.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” Buttigieg posted. “Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”
Trump was asked how he could be so sure diversity played a role in the crash when he acknowledged himself the air traffic controllers may not have done anything wrong, he told reporters it was because he has “common sense.”
Trump in his first two weeks in office has rapidly sought to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the government. Trump moved to place all federal employees working on such programs on administrative leave and encourage the private sector to also end DEI initiatives.
About 60 people were believed to be on the American Airlines flight
that collided with a UH-60 Blackhawk on its final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday night.
Other Trump administration officials echoed the president’s rhetoric about diversity efforts playing a role in weakening government agencies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon would be “color-blind” moving forward. Vice President JD Vance suggested that changing hiring standards means “you don’t have the best people.”
