Trump sparks outcry with implication that DEI policies are at fault in D.C. midair collision

At his first news conference since the aircraft collision over the Potomac River, President Donald Trump implied Thursday that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause, although an investigation into the fatal disaster has only just begun.

“We have to have our smartest people” as air traffic controllers, Trump said Thursday morning. “It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. ... They have to be talented, naturally talented. Geniuses. Can’t have regular people doing their job. We can’t have regular people doing this job. They won’t be able to do it, but we’ll restore faith in American air travel.”

Trump spent a considerable amount of time discussing the Federal Aviation Administration's DEI initiatives, particularly under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. He cited the FAA's acknowledgment of the underemployment of employees with disabilities.

A week before he took office, Trump said that the FAA website said "people with severe disabilities are the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, that they want them" to be "air traffic controllers. I don’t think so."

Later Thursday, a White House memo said the Biden administration recruited "individuals with 'severe intellectual' disabilities in the FAA" under diversity, equity and inclusion hiring.

Timothy Shriver, chairman of the board for the Special Olympics, a sports organization for people with disabilities, said on Instagram that “to our knowledge, no persons with profound intellectual disabilities are employed as air traffic controllers in the U.S. or elsewhere.”

Trump also railed against former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who served under Biden, calling him a “disaster.” But under questioning from reporters, Trump stopped short of outright blaming the programs for the midair collision Wednesday night.

"It just could have been," Trump said when he was asked whether he believed the crash was the result of diversity hiring.

Trump went on to attack the Obama and Biden administrations, saying they lowered requirements for air traffic controllers in service of DEI. “Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse,” he said.

“A group within the FAA determined that the workforce was too white, then they had concerted efforts to get the administration to change that and to change it immediately,” he added. “This was in the Obama administration.”

“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system," Trump said.

An American Eagle Flight from Wichita, Kansas, with 60 passengers and four crew members aboard, collided midair with an Army helicopter, with three people onboard, near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday night. Trump confirmed there were no survivors.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was recently sworn in, said the accident occurred during a “routine, annual [Army] retraining, night flights on a standard corridor, for a continuity of government mission. The military does dangerous things. It does routine things on the regular basis. Tragically, last night, a mistake was made.”

On his second day in office, Trump issued an executive order to wipe out DEI programs throughout the federal government, including at the FAA.

He said his order was “very powerful, and restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers."

On Thursday, reporters asked him whether he was getting ahead of the investigation into the crash by claiming DEI initiatives were connected.

Trump responded simply, “I have common sense, OK?”

Reed Kimbrough, a former Army helicopter pilot who is a DEI consultant, told NBC News he was taken aback by Trump's comments.

"To say those things that had no bearing on any facts and a lack of credible information is just, it's just jarring," said Kimbrough, who is Black. "While families are grieving, to turn this into an attack on DEI is disturbing. The lack of empathy, the lack of decorum — using profanity at a press conference — and to politicize a tragedy is really unconscionable."

In a statement to NBC News, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said Trump used the news conference to play politics, adding that he was "disgusted" by the president's words.

"The President has made his decision to put politics over people abundantly clear as he uses the highest office in the land to sow hatred rooted in falsehoods instead of providing us with the leadership we need and deserve.”

About emergency response from Washington, Maryland and Virginia personnel, Johnson said, “We’re proud to see thousands of first responders in the DMV region unify to support the enormous recovery efforts taking place on the Potomac.”

Later during his news conference, Trump seemed to absolve air traffic controllers, saying the “helicopter was obviously in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

As he spoke with the media later Thursday afternoon, Trump tempered his comments, saying DEI “may have" contributed to the crash. "I don’t know; incompetence might have played a role. Well, we’ll let you know that, but we want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are. We want the most competent people, especially in those positions.”

However, the White House memo about the collision paired what happened with DEI initiatives in previous administrations.

"On my second day in office," it reads, "I ordered an immediate return to merit-based recruitment, hiring, and promotion, elevating safety and ability as the paramount standard. Yesterday’s devastating accident tragically underscores the need to elevate safety and competence as the priority of the FAA."

The White House posted Thursday on X in defense of the Trump administration’s air traffic control policies.

“In 2018, the Trump administration announced it would do away with an Obama-era test that punished skilled applicants,” the post said.

The FAA announced in a statement in April 2019, during Trump’s first term in office, that its Office of Civil Rights would look for “specific opportunities for people with targeted disabilities,” saying it would enroll up to 20 people in its Aviation Development Program.

“The candidates in this program will receive the same rigorous consideration in terms of aptitude, medical and security qualifications as those individuals considered for a standard public opening for air traffic controller jobs,” the FAA said.

John Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems and an NBC News aviation analyst, said: “There are standards for everyone in aviation, notably in a safety-critical position, be it pilots, be it flight attendants, be it dispatchers, be it air traffic controllers. So the standards have never changed. And to allege that somehow these pilots were substandard or the controllers were substandard, without any evidence of that, I think is, at the minimum, it’s very premature, and it’s without foundation of fact.”

Buttigieg quickly responded to Trump's remarks, saying on X that they were "despicable."

"As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying," he said.

"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," Buttigieg said.

Billy Nolen, an acting FAA administrator under Biden, who is also Black, said that role and his career have been centered on improving safety. In this case, that will mean investigating what happened.

"That’s what we owe, certainly, to the families, and that’s what we owe to the American people,” he said.

The FAA has had a shortage of air traffic controllers for years. Tennesse Garvey, a pilot for 22 years who is Black, previously told NBC News that eliminating DEI may only exacerbate demand.

“There’s never been any proof that DEI causes any safety issues, because it doesn’t,” Garvey said. “And if there’s something wrong with aviation in America, how can DEI be the problem? There are only 4% Black pilots operating within this space.”

Barry McCaffrey, a retired Army general, said Thursday on MSNBC that he was “appalled” by Trump’s blaming diversity requirements at the FAA and under his two Democratic predecessors. “This is no time for partisan politics,” he said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com