In a moment that should have been focused on national mourning and aviation safety, President Donald Trump instead used a devastating midair collision that claimed 67 lives—including three Army aviators and 64 passengers and crew aboard an American Airlines jet—to attack his Democratic predecessors and push a false narrative linking government diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to the tragedy.
Making his first appearance in the White House briefing room since returning to office, Trump began with a moment of silence for the victims and praised the emergency responders battling freezing temperatures and treacherous river conditions to recover bodies. But the solemnity quickly gave way to political rhetoric.
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary, you remember that only the highest aptitude they have to be the highest intellect and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” he claimed during the briefing.
“That was not so prior to getting there … and then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before. I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse,” Trump added.
Air traffic control hiring has always required extensive training, licensing and medical certifications to ensure controllers meet the necessary performance benchmarks. While the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has had diversity initiatives aimed at expanding recruitment, there has been no evidence that these programs compromised safety or changed the rigorous selection process for controllers.
Trump went further, suggesting that an FAA program aimed at increasing inclusion had sought to place individuals with “severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities” in air traffic control positions. He pointed to a government webpage listing disabilities covered under equal employment protections and falsely suggested that people with conditions like epilepsy and paralysis were being placed in roles managing air traffic. The program in question, however, was designed to recruit for a range of positions at the FAA—many of which had no connection to air traffic control.
Vice President JD Vance took the attack even further, blaming diversity hiring for the crash. “If you go to some of the headlines over the past ten years, many hundreds of people [were] suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but [were] turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump’s leadership,” he said.
While Trump and Vance suggested that diversity policies had somehow caused the crash, Trump also admitted that he wasn’t sure if the air traffic controllers had done anything wrong. Instead, in a social media post, he implied the Army helicopter pilots may have been at fault—shifting blame yet again.
When pressed on why he was suddenly scapegoating diversity efforts, Trump offered a characteristically dismissive response: “Because I have common sense, okay, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”
Authorities are still investigating the collision between an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army helicopter and have not yet determined the cause.