President Donald Trump pointed fingers at Democrats and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives for the plane crash that claimed 67 lives Wednesday night, even while admitting that the actual cause of the midair collision is still under investigation.
During a Thursday press conference at the White House, Trump described the crash involving American Airlines Flight 5342 and a military Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport as a “tragedy of terrible proportions.” After remarks, Trump spoke to reporters and shifted the blame to FAA diversity initiatives and Democrats from the previous administration for the collision. He took aim at the FAA’s efforts to recruit employees with disabilities and vowed that his administration would prioritize hiring “naturally talented geniuses” for air traffic controller positions.
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“It says diversity is integral to the FAA’s mission of achieving safe and efficient travel,” Trump said, reading from an article he said was published a week before he took office. “I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I think it’s just the opposite.”
“There are things where you have to go on brain power,” Trump added. “You have to go on psychological quality.”
Throughout the press conference, Trump repeatedly deflected responsibility for the collision, even suggesting at one point that the pilot of the Black Hawk might be at fault. However, he spent most of his time criticizing what he views as flawed DEI policies at the FAA. When reporters pressed him for the reasoning behind his conclusions, Trump leaned on “common sense” for justification, but ultimately conceded that no one really knew what caused the crash. “We don’t know that necessarily it’s even the controller’s fault,” he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, a large-scale search and recovery operation was still in full swing, aiming to locate the bodies of 60 passengers and four crew members aboard AA5342, along with three service members from the Black Hawk. Among those on the flight were over a dozen members of the figure skating community returning from the U.S. Championships in Wichita, Kansas, including Russian nationals and the 1994 pairs world champions, Evgenia Shiskova and Vadim Naumov. Trump mentioned that his administration had been in touch with the Russian government and might help facilitate the return of their remains.
As of now, neither the FAA nor the NTSB has announced the cause of the collision. The American Airlines flight was operating on a standard daily route from Wichita, and according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the Black Hawk helicopter was on a routine retraining mission.
