𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗕𝗔𝗠𝗔, 𝗕𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡, 𝗕𝗨𝗧𝗧𝗜𝗚𝗜𝗘𝗚 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗘-𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗔𝗧 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗚𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧~~𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣 𝗢𝗙 𝗙𝗔𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗨𝗚𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗕𝗬 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗞 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗔 𝗛𝗔𝗗 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗫 $𝟲𝟯𝟯𝗞 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗦𝗔𝗙𝗘𝗧𝗬 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦

 

From the editor: During times of national tragedy we've become accustomed to presidents acting as a consoler-in-chief, but these are very different times.  Trump used the occasion of the recent plane-helicopter crash at Reagan Airport to blame past presidents and the outgoing transportation secretary.

From ABC News, CBS News, other sources:

In his first public remarks reacting to Wednesday night’s collision of an American Airlines commercial plane and Army helicopter, President Donald Trump, without evidence, blamed DEI policies and railed against Democrats, including former Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

"We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system," said Trump, who claimed that he changed “Obama standards” during his first term in office “from very mediocre, at best, to extraordinary.” The president said his first administration prioritized federal air traffic control workers who were “superior” with the “highest aptitude” and “highest intellect.” He added, “That was not so prior to [me] getting there.”

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.

He added:

"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.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer also criticised Trump's comments.

"It's one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracies, it's another for the President of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered," Schumer said.

“Just last week, Trump FIRED the heads of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Coast Guard, and disbanded the Aviation Security Advisory Committee,” one X post read. The Associated Press reported on January 21 that Trump fired those heads and removed all members of the committee.

No one was in charge of the Federal Aviation Administration last night when a commercial flight collided with a helicopter as it was about to land at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., killing everyone aboard.

Mike Whitaker, the previous FAA administrator, stepped down on Inauguration Day after just over a year on the job. He’d repeatedly clashed with Elon Musk — now in charge of a group tasked with slashing the government’s headcount by President Donald Trump — over safety issues at his space company, SpaceX.

Last September, the FAA slapped Musk’s rocket company with $633,009 in fines as punishment for a series of three safety violations in May and June of 2023, as The Verge noted.

“Humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk wrote in frustration.

At the same time, the FAA and SpaceX were also arguing over the timeline for the fifth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, with federal officials grounding the massive rocket for months to conduct a thorough review.