Donald Trump held a press conference following the tragic January 29 midair collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA). In his remarks and before investigation, Trump attempted to link the crash to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.
Trump made no mention that a week ago, he fired the head of the entirety of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee. Nor did he mention he recently stripped the federal government of DEI policies as he blamed diversity requirements at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as well as Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the crash. He claimed standards for air traffic controllers were too lax, saying, “The FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.”
At Trump’s side at the presser were Vice President JD Vance, newly sworn-in Secretary of Transportation (and former Real World reality TV star and Fox News host) Sean Duffy, and Defense Secretary (and former Fox News weekend host) Pete Hegseth. All three have praised Trump’s efforts to eliminate DEI requirements.
The former FAA administrator, Michael Whitaker, quit on January 20th after Elon Musk told him to resign following a proposal of fines for SpaceX. This means the FAA does not currently have a Senate-confirmed leader, though Trump has named an acting lead who did not speak at the event.
There were no survivors of the midair collision. The plane, American Eagle Flight No. 5342, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members and had departed from Wichita, Kansas. There were three soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter, a U.S. Army Sikorsky H-60.
The helicopter was on a training flight out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia, while the plane was within moments of landing at DCA. Top figure skaters from Russia and the United States were aboard the plane. This was the first major U.S. commercial crash in nearly 16 years.
Update: On the evening of January 30th, Trump issued a presidential action for the Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety. In the action, he blamed the crash on “problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration.” The action goes on to order the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to review hiring and replace “any individuals who do not meet qualification standards.” There is no evidence that DEI hiring was a cause of the crash or that any of Trump’s claims have merit.
When Trump was asked by a reporter if he’d visit the site of the crash, he responded:
“What’s the site? The Water? You want me to go swimming?” — Donald Trump
