President Donald Trump and his administration officials triggered immediate outrage on Thursday after blaming the devastating plane crash in Washington, D.C. on "diversity" programs implemented at the Federal Aviation Administration. The crash, which was caused by a midair collision with an Army helicopter, remains under investigation — but no evidence has emerged to support the theory of diversity programs playing a role.
Indeed, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) furiously pointed out on X that just a few days ago, acting on the advice of tech billionaire Elon Musk, Trump ousted key aviation safety officials from their jobs.
"I represent LaGuardia Airport as well as workers for JFK," wrote Ocasio-Cortez. "Trump gutted the Aviation Safety Committee last week. Air traffic controllers — already understaffed — got Trump’s 'buyout' this week with a 1 week ultimatum to decide."
"It’s not DEI — it’s him. And Elon too," she concluded.
The "buyout" offer, which closely mirrors a mass layoff policy adopted by Musk when he took over the Twitter platform before rebranding it, isn't a buyout in strict terms, but an offer to delay being fired for eight months in return for not having to comply with the Trump administration's new return-to-office policies.
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The idea that aviation safety standards have been undermined by diversity programs is a conspiracy theory that has been knocking around the far right for years, and in particular exploded into prominence last year MAGA youth activist Charlie Kirk baselessly suggested that Black pilots were being hired in contravention of qualification rules.
At one point, even the Trump campaign itself was worried that Kirk's rantings on the subject would make it harder for them to win over Black voters.
