President Donald Trump began his post-holiday morning taking credit for no commercial airline flights crashing during 2017. The internet blasted him mercilessly, but the reality of Trump's praise is that the man running the agency responsible for the Aviation Safety Network, was appointed by President Barack Obama.
"Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation," Trump tweeted. "Good news -- it was just reported that there were zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record."
Michael Huerta was appointed by Obama to a five-year term term at the Federal Aviation Administration and it expires on Jan. 6. It's unclear if Trump intends to reappoint him given the great work.
While there hasn't been a commercial airline crash in the last year, there actually hasn't been a commercial airline crash in the United States since 2013, Bloomberg News reported. Asiana Airlines struck a seawall in July 2013, killing three people.
A White House spokesperson said that Trump cites anti-terrorism tactics and a lack of regulation for the success.
“I’m unaware that the president has had any impact on aviation oversight policy or practice,” Bloomberg quoted Bob Mann, president of aviation consultancy R.W. Mann & Co. “Social media is not ‘oversight.’"
“In fact, his stated preferences -- less ‘red tape,’ fewer regulations -- would suggest a preference for less oversight, not strictness," he continued.
Trump, his family and his supporters have criticized the government employees over the past year claiming that those who are Obama-era holdovers are part of "the deep state," a so-called "shadow government" running roughshod over Trump's efforts. Trump's morning Tweetstorm also included a knock at his own Justice Department for being part part of "the deep state."
Last year, Trump bashed the FAA and claimed it needed to be privatized.
“They didn’t know what they were doing,” he said of efforts to modernize the FAA. “A total waste of money.”