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President Donald Trump held a rambling, unhinged press conference Thursday about the midair collision between a commercial plane and military helicopter in Washington, D.C. Wednesday night that killed 67 people. The entire press conference was a long series of excuses about why Trump’s administration wasn’t to blame for the crash and the president repeatedly said “diversity” in hiring of air traffic controllers was to blame.
“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. Can you imagine?” Trump said.
Trump said the Democratic presidents that preceded him were to blame for the crash because they instituted policies that hired people who were unqualified to be air traffic controllers.
“You had a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn’t have happened,” Trump said. “And we’ll see. We’re going to look into that and we’re going to see. But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. Somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.”
The “helicopter and a plane” Trump was referring to included an American Airlines flight carrying 64 people and a U.S. Army helicopter carrying three people. Trump said the helicopter should have “been at a different height,” while also blaming DEI for the crash.
Reporters in the room repeatedly pushed Trump on his claims that DEI initiatives had somehow caused the crash, including Kaitlan Collins from CNN.
“You are blaming Democrats and DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that Black Hawk helicopter. Don’t you think you’re getting ahead of the investigation right now?” Collins asked. Trump deflected and said Collins was asking “stupid” questions.
Another reporter in the room asked about why Trump was blaming members of the military for the crash.
“You then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistakes. That’s why I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash,” the reporter asked.
“Because I have common sense, okay?” Trump replied. “And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level.”
Trump continued by rambling about computer systems he clearly knows nothing about.
“When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time and they’re all coming in different directions, and you’re dealing with very high-level computer work and very complex computers,” Trump said. “And one of the other things I will tell you is that the systems that were built, I was going to rebuild the entire system. And then we had an election that didn’t turn out the way it should have. But they didn’t build the systems properly.”
A large contingent from the clown car of the Trump regime was also at Thursday’s press conference, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Something the President said that I think bears re-emphasizing, which is that when you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand you’re not getting the best people in government, but on the other hand it puts stresses on the people who are already there,” Vance said.
Sean Duffy, the former reality TV star and recently confirmed Secretary for the Department of Transportation, also spoke forcefully while pretending he was an important voice of authority who knew what he was doing. Duffy has no background or expertise to be the Transportation Secretary, aside from perhaps being on a reality TV show called Road Rules, but was confirmed anyway, including by a large number of Democrats.
“We will not accept excuses,” Duffy said in the middle of a press conference that was nothing but making excuses. “We will not accept passing the buck,” Duffy continued while passing the buck.
“We are going to take responsibility at the Department of Transportation and the FAA to make sure we have the reforms that have been dictated by President Trump in place to make sure that these mistakes do not happen again,” Duffy said, trying to give credence to Trump’s absurd arguments about diversity being the cause of the crash.
Trump’s administration instituted a hiring freeze on air traffic controllers in the earliest days of coming to power. Ranking members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure even issued a statement raising serious concerns about safety on Jan. 22 about the hiring freeze and calling out the ostensible reason for the move: DEI.
“Hiring air traffic controllers is the number one safety issue according to the entire aviation industry,” wrote Rep. Rick Larsen, a Democrat from Washington. “Instead of working to improve aviation safety and lower costs for hardworking American families, the Administration is choosing to spread bogus DEI claims to justify this decision.”
The FAA had been operating without an administrator but Trump named Chris Rocheleau for the post during his press conference.
