I’m convinced Donald Trump can’t help himself. As dozens of families reel from Wednesday’s tragic plane crash near DC, the president chose to focus on DEI hires.
During a news conference Thursday, Trump seemed fixated on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI), saying that the Federal Aviation Administration changed its standards under former President Joe Biden and was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems.”

I found Trump’s comments deeply offensive and highly inappropriate, given that this tragedy happened less than a day ago. Divers – at the time of my publishing this blog post – were still fishing bodies out of the Potomac River.
I, like many other Washingtonians, was watching the TV news conference in real time. I could tell the exact moment Trump’s prepared speech ended, and he and went into his off-the-cuff remarks.
Trump Digs Into Former Presidents’ DEI Practices
It’s almost as if he couldn’t wait to take a dig at DEI hiring practices.
“I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best, to extraordinary, Trump said.
“Only the highest aptitude. They have to be the highest intellect and psychological aptitude that were allowed to be qualified for air traffic controllers.”
Trump, as he promised on the campaign trail, has been rolling back DEI policies in the government.
In a recent blog post, I expressed my discomfort with people referring to minorities as DEI hires. I stressed that just because a minority was hired at a company to diversify its ranks does not mean that person is incompetent or unqualified.
During Trump’s speech, he wasted no time criticising former US Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg.
“Do you know how badly everything has run since he’s run the Department of Transportation? He’s a disaster.”
Buttigieg promptly fired back, calling Trump’s comments, “despicable.” He also defended his record.
“We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” he said.
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying.”
Buttigieg also noted that one of Trump’s 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,” he said.
I couldn’t agree more.
How This Plane Crash Tragedy Unfolded
On Wednesday, American Airlines Flight 5342, which had 60 passengers and four crew members on board at the time, had a midair collision with a Black Hawk Army helicopter, that was carrying three service members on board at the time.
Those service members were on a routine training mission.
According to local ABC News reports, the plane was scheduled to land at Runway 1 – one of the busiest runways. At the last minute, they changed to Runway 3. Those changes, by the way, are standard.
EarthCam footage captured the moment of impact and sadly many of those victims’ loved ones will have to see their families’ final moments on heavy rotation on the news over the next few weeks.
Perhaps I feel this tragedy so deeply because I live in Washington, DC.
This crash happened in my backyard. My daily commute takes me to Virginia, over the Potomac River – the same river where bodies are being recovered.
Donald Trump is The President Now, He Needs to Remember That
Trump needs to understand that he is no longer in campaign mode. He is not fighting for the White House anymore. He won. He won it all.
Now is the time for leadership in America. I am so sick of the political divisiveness. When tragedies like this occur, the people are looking for a leader to assure them, not rile them up.
Investigators are now trying to determine the exact cause of the crash.
To watch a video of me addressing the topic of DEI hires, see the video below.