Trump’s Comments on Crash Bring Attention to His Order Ending FAA DEI Policies
Less than 24 hours after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial airplane attempting to land at Reagan National Airport, killing all passengers onboard both, President Donald Trump baselessly implied that the tragedy was the result of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that had been implemented by former Democratic administrations.
In reality, the programs Trump derided in his Thursday afternoon presser have been in existence for decades, including during his first presidential administration. They have likely made flying safer, aviation experts have said.
Wednesday’s accident is the first fatal commercial airline crash in the U.S. since 2009.
Trump rescinded the DEI policies at the FAA through an executive order last week. The order falsely claimed that those programs penalized “hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so, as they lack a requisite disability or skin color” — making the bigoted implication that the agency deprioritized skill or ability to do the job while making hiring decisions.
“Almost unbelievably, as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative, the Biden FAA specifically recruited and hired individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA,” the order stated.
Fact checks of those claims show that they do not provide a full picture of how the DEI initiative at the FAA functioned, and wrongly suggest that safety wasn’t prioritized under the policy.
The policy had been in place for decades, a report from Snopes pointed out, and has been included on the FAA website since 2013. The policy clarified that hiring decisions would still be based on a candidate’s qualifications and ability to perform the job they were applying for.
“The FAA employs tens of thousands of people for a wide range of positions, from administrative roles to oversight and execution of critical safety functions,” the former policy said. “Like many large employers, the agency proactively seeks qualified candidates from as many sources as possible, all of whom must meet rigorous qualifications that of course will vary by position.”
Prior to the crash on Wednesday, several veteran pilots and industry experts noted that the DEI programs targeted by Trump’s executive order actually ensured that airports and flights were safer than they would have been without such policies.
“There’s no sliding scale when it comes to pilots. Everyone has to meet the industry standards, and they are high,” Eric Hendrick, a former pilot and current director of pilot outreach for Delta Airlines, told NBC News about Trump’s executive order last week. “So to weaponize DEI by saying it could threaten public safety is just ridiculous.”
“It’s incredibly astonishing within this industry, where the goal is to promote aviation safety, that they are getting rid of programs that can help with safety,” veteran pilot Tennesse Garvey told NBC News.
Writing on the travel guide website Frommers the day before the crash, William J. McGee, the Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project and an FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher, said that the current administration has never provided evidence that the FAA hired unqualified candidates through its DEI programs.
“If there’s any proof suggesting a single hire failed to meet established qualifications, the White House hasn’t provided any,” he said in his column on Tuesday.
McGee also noted that DEI programs actually result in safer air travel, adding:
Since Covid, leaders in the industry have complained about shortages of airline pilots and air traffic controllers. DEI was designed in part to address such shortages by attracting demographics that traditionally haven’t pursued aviation careers. DEI trains recruiters to seek qualified applicants from previously overlooked pipelines.
On Thursday, Trump reiterated the debunked claims he cited in his executive order.
“You have to go by psychological quality, and psychological quality is a very important element of it,” Trump said of DEI hires within the airline industry. “These are various very powerful tests that we put to use and they were terminated by Biden, and Biden went by a standard that’s the exact opposite.”
“I put safety first — Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” Trump added, also laying blame on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Reporters pushed back against Trump’s claims, noting that the policies he was railing against were in place during his first term as president. They also inquired if Trump was implying that the crash on Wednesday night was the result of DEI.
Trump faltered in his response, saying “we don’t know,” and then claiming, “it just could have been.” An investigation into the crash has not yet been completed, but there is no evidence to suggest that it had anything to do with DEI policies.
Buttigieg responded to Trump’s attacks in a post on X, writing that the president’s comments were “despicable.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” Buttigieg wrote.
President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.
Trump is not the first president in U.S. history to attack airline staff or employees at the FAA for political reasons. In one of his first acts as president, former President Ronald Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers who were on strike. The action was a major blow to the labor movement, resulting in the decertification of the union months later — and a shortage of air traffic controllers that extended into the George H.W. Bush administration.