Donald Trump blamed mentally and physically disabled workers for a deadly collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter.
The president blamed his two predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and specifically policies aimed at recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, although the Federal Aviation Administration conducted similar initiatives during Trump's first term and even launched a program in 2019 to enroll up to 20 people with disabilities in training for careers in air traffic operations.
"I put safety first," Trump told reporters. "Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen, because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse, so, as you know, last week, long before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs throughout the country. So it was very interesting, about a week ago, almost upon entering office, I signed something last week that was an executive order, very powerful, on restoring the highest standards of air traffic controllers and others."
ALSO READ: Top GOPer's ‘most immediate’ priority for new committee includes probing a MAGA conspiracy
"By the way, and my administration will set the highest possible bar for aviation safety," Trump added. "We have to have our smartest people. It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. It matters – intellect, talent, the word talent, you have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. You can't have regular people doing that job, they won't be able to do it."
Trump appeared to reference a misleading Fox News article that blamed a January 2024 Alaska Airlines incident where a Boeing 737 Max 9 lost a plug door mid-flight on FAA emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion standards pushed by then-transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, although those policies predated his tenure and no evidence was shown linking them to the incident.
"I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office, and here's one the FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities," Trump said. "That is amazing, and then it says, FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in and they want them. They can be air traffic controllers, I don't think so. This was in Jan. 14, [2024], so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA's program. Then another article, the Federal Aviation Administration. This was before I got to office recently, second term. The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website. Can you imagine?"
He then uttered profanity to slur Buttigieg, who served as Biden's secretary of transportation until last week.
"The initiative is part of the FAA's diversity and inclusion hiring plan, which says diversity is integral to achieving FAA's mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel – I don't think so, I don't think so," Trump said. "I think it's just the opposite. the FAA website shows that the agency's guidance on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23 of [2022]. They wanted to make it even more so, and then I came in and I assumed maybe this is the reason the FAA, which is overseen by secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner. That's the guy's a real winner. Do you know how badly everything's run since he's run? The Department of Transportation? He's a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor, he ran his city into the ground, and he's a disaster now. He's just got a good line of b------. The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation while he runs it, 45,000 people, and he's run it right into the ground with his diversity, so I had to say that it's terrible."
Watch it below or click the link right here.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
