(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump slammed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday, suggesting they made air travel less safe and could have caused issues during a Wednesday evening crash between an American Airlines plane and a military helicopter in Washington, D.C.
“The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website,” said Trump, noting the program allowed for the hiring of people with hearing and vision issues as well as paralysis, epilepsy and “dwarfism.”
He added air traffic controllers needed to be “geniuses.”
“They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses,” he said. “You can’t have regular people doing their job.”
However, Trump later said there is no evidence the collision could be blamed on DEI hires.
“It just could have been,” the president said.
He was later pressed on how he made these claims and said, “I have common sense.”
At a bill signing where he signed an executive order prioritizing “competence” over “DEI” he again clarified that he could not say if DEI played a role in this crash but said he was sure incompetence did.
Despite Trump’s comments, there was no evidence the FAA or air traffic controllers were responsible for the crash. Even Trump said the cause was unknown, vowing to “get to the bottom of it.”
Trump vows to dismiss air traffic officials who ‘aren’t mentally competent’
Trump went on to criticize DEI efforts he said were championed under former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He used profanity to describe such efforts.
“That guy’s a real winner,” Trump said sarcastically of Buttigieg, before adding, “He’s a disaster.”
Buttigieg called Trump’s criticisms “despicable,” writing on X, “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.”
He noted that when he led the agency, it “had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who said he’s been briefed on the crash and is monitoring the situation, said Trump’s theories “turn your stomach.”
“For the president of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families are still being notified, it just turns your stomach,” he said Thursday at the Capitol.
Meanwhile, newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s DEI sentiment, adding the Army is investigating whether the Black Hawk’s altitude played a role.
“The era of DEI is gone at the Defense department.” Hegseth said, adding the DOD will hire “the best and brightest” following the collision.
Trump also vowed to dismiss air traffic officials who “aren’t mentally competent.”
“For some jobs,” Trump said, singling out air traffic controllers, “they have to be at the highest level of genius.”
The collision ‘should have been prevented’: Trump
Trump also said the collision “should have been prevented.”
“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.”
“It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane,” he wrote. “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!!”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy echoed the sentiment during a news conference Thursday morning.
“We are going to wait for all the information to come in from this vantage point, but to back up what the president said, what I’ve seen so far, do I think this was preventable? Absolutely,” he said.
Duffy emphasized the collision “should not have happened.”
“When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination — that didn’t happen yesterday. That’s not acceptable, and so we will not accept excuses. We will not accept passing the buck,” he said
Duffy also confirmed both aircraft had been located and that a federal investigation is underway.
Their remarks come after a regional jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided with a military helicopter, which was on a training mission, just before landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening. American Airlines said the flight was en route from Wichita, Kansas.
The two aircraft crashed midair as the plane was descending to the runway around 9 p.m. local time, according to officials.
About 300 emergency responders conducted a multiagency search and rescue operation. Authorities confirmed both aircraft were in the Potomac River and rescue operations were underway.
Officials said during Thursday’s briefing that no survivors were expected, but roughly 30 bodies have been recovered so far. None of the crash victims have been identified.
Trump, in his late-night post, echoed concerns that many expressed after the disaster.
“What a terrible night this has been. God bless you all!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The Hill contributed to this report.
