President Donald Trump sparred with reporters Thursday after fielding questions about the fatal plane crash in Washington, D.C., linking the incident to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and air traffic control failures.
The crash, which involved a commercial airliner and a Black Hawk military helicopter, claimed 67 lives. However, details surrounding the cause of the collision remain under investigation.
During a press conference, CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins questioned Trump’s early assignment of blame, asking whether he was “getting ahead of the investigation” by attributing the crash to DEI policies, air traffic control errors, and the military pilot flying the Black Hawk.
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Trump fired back at the inquiry, dismissing it as “not a very smart question.”
“You mean the names of the people that are on the plane? You think that’s going to make a difference?” Trump responded. “They are a group of people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names, we can give you that. We’ll be giving that very soon in coordination with American Airlines.”
When pressed further about whether it was too soon to blame air traffic controllers or DEI hiring policies, Trump doubled down on his stance.
“I have common sense. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t,” he said. “We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, you’re dealing with very high-level computer work and very complex computers.”
The former president also criticized the altitude positioning of the two aircraft, arguing that basic aviation safety principles should have prevented the crash.
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“The people in the helicopter should have seen. I can’t imagine people with 20/20 vision not seeing what’s happening up there,” Trump said. “For whatever reason, they were at the same elevation.”
Trump also raised questions about the military helicopter’s presence in a commercial flight path, stating:
“You say, what was a helicopter doing in that track? It’s very sad, but visually, somebody should have been able to see and taken that helicopter out of play.”
When asked whether one of the pilots may have been using night vision equipment, Trump acknowledged that it could have impaired visibility and played a role in the accident.
“That would be maybe a reason why you wouldn’t actually see as well as on a clear night,” he noted.
Trump also criticized DEI hiring policies within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and air traffic control system, arguing that they have led to unqualified individuals being placed in critical roles.
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“We need the highest level of genius in these jobs,” Trump insisted. “These are not people that should be doing this particular job. They’d be very good for certain jobs, but not this.”
When pressed by a reporter on whether he would fire certain DEI hires in the federal government, Trump responded, “I would say the answer is yes, if we find that people aren’t mentally competent.”
A reporter pointed out that the FAA’s diversity hiring policies predate both Biden and Trump’s administrations, dating back to 2013, and questioned why Trump did not remove them during his first term.
Trump countered by claiming he had implemented changes but that they were reversed under President Biden’s administration.
“I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy,” Trump said. “Then Biden came in, and he changed it. Then, when I came in three days ago, I signed a new order bringing it to the highest level of intelligence.”
Despite his concerns about air traffic control policies, Trump urged the public not to be afraid of flying, stating that incidents like this are rare.
“This is something that has not happened in many years,” he reassured. “We are going to have the highest level people. We’ve already hired some of the best for that position long before we knew about this.”
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