In his first news conference since the aircraft collision over the Potomac River, President Donald Trump on Thursday implied that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause, although an investigation has only just begun into the fatal disaster.
“We have to have our smartest people” as air traffic controllers, Trump said Thursday morning. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. … They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job. We can’t have regular people doing this job. They won’t be able to do it, but we’ll restore faith in American air travel.”
Trump spent a considerable amount of time discussing the Federal Aviation Administration’s DEI initiatives, particularly under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. He cited the FAA’s acknowledgment of the underemployment of employees with disabilities.
A week before he took office, Trump said the FAA website said “people with severe disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, that they want them” to be “air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.”
Trump also railed against former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served under Biden, calling him a “disaster.” But under questioning from reporters, Trump stopped short of outright blaming the programs for the midair collision on Wednesday night.
“It just could have been,” Trump said when asked whether he believed the crash was the result of diversity hiring.
Trump went on to attack the Obama and the Biden administrations, saying they lowered requirements for air traffic controllers in service of DEI. “Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse,” he said.
“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,” he added. “This was in the Obama administration.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with the president Thursday at a news conference about the midair collision. Roberto Schmidt / AFP – Getty Images
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Trump said.
An American Eagle Flight from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members, collided midair with an Army helicopter, with three onboard, near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night. Trump confirmed there were no survivors.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was recently sworn in, said the accident occurred during a “routine, annual (Army) retraining, night flights on a standard corridor, for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on the regular basis. Tragically, last night, a mistake was made.”
In his second day in office, Trump issued an executive order to wipe out DEI programs throughout the federal government, including at the FAA.
He said his order was “very powerful, and restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers.”
On Thursday, reporters asked the president whether he was getting ahead of the investigation into the crash by claiming that DEI initiatives were connected.
Trump responded simply, “I have common sense, OK?”
In a statement to NBC News, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said that Trump used the news conference to play politics, adding that he was “disgusted” by the president’s words.
“The President has made his decision to put politics over people abundantly clear as he uses the highest office in the land to sow hatred rooted in falsehoods instead of providing us with the leadership we need and deserve.”
About emergency response from Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia personnel, Johnson said, “We’re proud to see thousands of first responders in the DMV region unify to support the enormous recovery efforts taking place on the Potomac.”
Later during the press conference, Trump seemed to absolve air traffic control, saying the “helicopter was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Buttigieg quickly responded to the president’s remarks, saying in a post on X that the comments were “despicable.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he said.
“President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,” Buttigieg said.
The FAA has had a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. Tennesse Garvey, a pilot for 22 years who is Black, previously told NBC News that eliminating DEI may only exacerbate demand.
“There’s never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t,” Garvey said. “And if there’s something wrong with aviation in America, how can DEI be the problem? There are only 4% Black pilots operating within this space.”
Yamiche Alcindor contributed.
