Former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg Calls Trump’s Blaming DEI For Deadly D.C. Plane Crash ‘Despicable’

President Donald Trump, in a briefing on Thursday, criticized the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity initiatives, suggesting that they are to blame for the deadly collision of a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. It is the first major commercial plane crash in the U.S. in 25 years.

Trump acknowledged that it was too early to determine the cause but immediately speculated that diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives could have been the cause, citing past Democratic administrations’ push to include such policies in the FAA.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first,” Trump said. He said that he blamed diversity policies because he has “common sense, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”

“That guy is a real winner,” Trump added, sarcastically referring to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “He’s a disaster.”

“Brilliant people have to be in those positions,” Trump said.

Trump continued that an “FAA diversity push includes a focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing, and then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are a most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in, and they want them. They can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so,” he said. 

Before Trump signed an executive order to eliminate federal DEI programs on his first day in office, there was a “diversity and Inclusion” page on the FAA’s website. It stated the FAA had a “special emphasis in recruiting and hiring” individuals with conditions that impact and include “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.” Though the site did not specify whether these individuals would qualify for controller positions, the FAA has a range of roles beyond air traffic controllers.

The policy has been on the FAA’s website since 2013 and existed throughout Trump’s first term. In 2019, the FAA launched an initiative to recruit and train qualified individuals with disabilities, such as veterans, for air traffic careers.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management states that air traffic controllers cannot have a history of mental disorders or physical conditions that could interfere with their jobs.

Federal investigators have yet to determine the cause of Wednesday’s crash and have no evidence that it was related to these initiatives.

“The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“The military does dangerous things, it does routine things, on a regular basis,” he said. He noted there was “some sort of an elevation issue” on a “routine annual retraining” for a “continuity of government” mission.

Democrats were quick to pounce on Trump’s statement.

“Despicable,” Buttigieg tweets not long after Trump’s news conference.

“It just turns your stomach,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracy theories; it’s another for the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified.” 

Among American Airlines Flight 5342 passengers were members of a Boston figure skating club, their mothers, and two former 1994 world champion figure skaters. The names of the helicopter crew have not been released.

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Article by Angie Schlager