Trump and his allies say DEI was a factor in DC plane crash

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the aftermath of the plane crash in the nation’s capital that is believed to have killed dozens of people, President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized the hiring practices of his predecessor that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We must have only the highest standards for people who work in our aviation system,” Trump said in a media briefing at the White House. He said he increased hiring standards when he took over from former President Barack Obama.

“Only the highest aptitude, the highest intellect, and psychologically superior people were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers,” under his standards, he said. “I always felt that this was a job that had to have superior intelligence.”

Trump provided no evidence backing up his claims that Biden- and Obama-era hiring practices and diversity initiatives are to blame for the crash or that race/ethnicity, gender or ability was related or responsible. He did not say when the air traffic controllers involved in the crash were hired, nor did he specify their race or gender.

Officials on Thursday said 67 people were killed in the collision of the passenger plane and an Army helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, leading to a significant search for bodies in the Potomac River.

Trump continued in his comments at the White House, saying the jobs should be done by “naturally talented geniuses” and then criticized the Biden administration for allegedly allowing people with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities to work for the Federal Aviation Administration.

“They want them in, and they can be air traffic controllers,” Trump said. “I don’t think so.”

Trump has targeted DEI in executive actions

Trump has spent a significant portion of the first week and a half of his presidency issuing executive orders that targeted federal programs on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, saying they stood in the way of merit-based hiring.

“We will have the best and brightest in every position possible,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the press briefing after Trump spoke. “The era of DEI is gone at the Defense Department.”

An executive order called “Keeping America Safe in Aviation” specifically ordered the heads of the Department of Transportation and the FAA, which regulates the airline industry, to “immediately return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring,” and to immediately rescind diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Maria Town, the president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, criticized the order in an interview with USA TODAY on Wednesday, before the crash happened. She said the presidents of both major political parties have prioritized hiring people with disabilities going back to World War I.

“Preventing the FAA from hiring people with disabilities does not make planes more safe,” Town said. “It just removes opportunities for disabled people.”

‘Thrown under the bus’

Trump said he believed diversity initiatives played a role, “because I have common sense and unfortunately a lot people don’t.”

At another point in the briefing, Trump said, “We don’t know that necessarily it’s even the controllers’ fault.” He also questioned the role of the military helicopter.

Later Thursday afternoon, Trump signed an additional presidential memorandum ordering the FAA to review hiring standards from the past four years — which was Biden’s term — and take “corrective action … including the replacement of any individuals who do not meet qualification standards.”

The memo said Wednesday night’s crash “follows problematic and likely illegal decisions” during the Obama and Biden terms, but did not provide evidence of what those decisions were or how they were illegal. However, the memo said the Obama administration shifted “the hiring focus away from objective aptitude.”

As he signed the memo in the Oval Office, Trump was asked by a reporter whether race or gender played a role in the crash. “It may have, I don’t know,” he told reporters. “Incompetence might have played a role. We’ll let you know that,” Trump said. “We want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions.”

Pete Buttigieg, who ran the Department of Transportation under Biden, wrote on social media that his team “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.” He called on Trump to “explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

Jess Davidson, the communications director for the American Association of People with Disabilities, called Trump’s remarks insulting. She said disabled airline workers and others in the community have been pushing the industry to adopt more safety standards, and said that disabled people are frequently injured or have their equipment, such as wheelchairs, destroyed during air travel.

This article was originally published by a www.usatoday.com . Read the Original article here. .