Trump & His Sycophants Blame Deadly Plane Crash on Pete Buttigieg, ‘Diversity’

Trump accused former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet member, of running his department “into the ground with his diversity."

By Kylie Cheung  |  January 30, 2025 | 2:25pm
Photos: Getty Images Politics
Trump & His Sycophants Blame Deadly Plane Crash on Pete Buttigieg, ‘Diversity’

On Wednesday night, a commercial plane collided with a U.S. Army helicopter in the crowded airspace near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). It’s the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since 2009, and President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their ilk of bigoted sycophants have chosen the most vile course of response possible, baselessly blaming the crash on supposed “diversity hires” within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

There appear to be no survivors among the 64 who were aboard the plane. And at a Thursday morning press conference, Trump’s response to this was to rail against made-up policies under the previous administration: “They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program… the FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative,” he said. Trump then named former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly LGBTQ executive in a presidential administration: “He’s just got a good line of bullshit,” Trump said, accusing Buttigieg of running his department “into the ground with his diversity.”

When reporters asked if Trump was really blaming the crash on DEI, he responded, “It just could have been.” Asked how he knew this, Trump snapped, “Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.” Another reporter asked if Trump plans to fire “those diversity hires” who are purportedly responsible. He replied, “I would say the answer is yes.”

The cause of the crash remains unknown. Just last week, in the first days of his presidency, Trump terminated what he characterized as a DEI program within the FAA, claiming to restore safety while actually taking resources away from a key air travel safety program.

Trump’s remarks follow the same bigoted conspiracy theories floated amid the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this month, in which Elon Musk and other popular right-wing influencers blamed the catastrophe on LGBTQ firefighters. I don’t fully have the words for how demoralizing it is to know that every national tragedy and disaster moving forward will be blamed on gay people, women, or people of color.

Pete Hegseth, the newly minted defense secretary who’s reportedly shown up drunk to every job he’s held over the last decade, stated at the same press conference that “we will have the best and brightest in every position possible… the era of DEI is gone.” Vance then swooped in to lazily echo the sentiment: “When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means, on the one hand, you’re not getting the best people in government, but on the other hand, it puts stresses on the people who are already there.”

Never one to miss an opportunity to kiss the ass of someone he once referred to as “America’s Hitler,” Vance continued, “I think that is a core part of what President Trump is going to bring, and has already brought to Washington, D.C., is we want to hire the best people, because we want the best people at air traffic control, and we want to make sure we have enough people at air traffic control who are actually competent to do the job.”

None of these ghouls cited a single source beyond their own smug racism. To the same people working in an administration that misspelled “Colombia,” and under a president whose senile, 78-year-old, white supremacist brain couldn’t compute biracial identity, anyone who isn’t a straight, white man is a “diversity hire” causing plane crashes and wildfires. 

Before the press conference, one of Trump’s top sycophants in Congress, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), made similar, idiotic claims. “I think you have to look at this with eyes wide open, see what happened,” Ogles said on Fox Business Thursday morning. “Human error. Was it some sort of equipment failure? Did DEI play a role in this type of thing?” Ogles is the same genius who last week introduced a bill to try to let Trump run for a third term. 

Just last year, Musk blamed a plane crash on diversity initiatives at Boeing and American Airlines; and he wasn’t even being original—all of these are just the conspiracy theories of racist internet trolls, who can now trust that the president of the United States and his inner circle are standing at the ready to regurgitate their bile.

Musk very publicly pressured the FAA administrator, Michael Whitaker, to step down as apparent retaliation for the FAA fining SpaceX over failing to get approval for launch change, the Verge reports. Whitaker announced his plan to resign in December, and stepped down on January 20th, leaving the FAA without a leader through the first major aviation disaster in over 15 years. Trump named ​​former chief operating officer of the National Business Aviation Association Chris Rocheleau as acting FAA commissioner on Thursday morning.

Shortly after Trump’s press conference, Buttigieg responded by calling the president’s remarks “despicable.”

“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch,” Buttigieg wrote in a tweet. “President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”

 
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