In presser, Trump battles media and blame trumps unity

For four minutes and eighteen seconds on Thursday, President Trump was what the nation has come to expect of its president when there is a tragedy. With his somber mien, invocations of God, and expressions of heartfelt grief, he was the mourner-in-chief, speaking of “a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital,” leading a moment of silence, and offering condolences to the families grappling with the deaths of 64 loved ones in the crash of a passenger plane and an Army helicopter above the Potomac River the night before.

“In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations,” he said during an appearance in the White House briefing room. “We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.”

It was the kind of statement that might have been delivered by former President Biden or former President Obama. Trump has always chafed at descriptions of Obama as the best recent president at leading the nation in mourning, as exemplified by his dramatic singing of "Amazing Grace" at services in 2015 for the victims of the Charleston church shooting.

Trump's tone changed, however, when he turned with relish to the subject that animated him for the rest of his 34 minutes before the assembled reporters—the differences he just said had faded for the day. In a flash, he went from mourner-in-chief to both partisan-in-chief and speculator-in-chief.

While most presidents are cautious in their comments after such disasters and try to avoid second-guessing or pre-judging official investigations, Trump showed no similar restraint even in the earliest hours of the government’s many inquiries into the deadly crash. Less than three hours had passed since the mid-air collision when Trump posted an all-caps, triple exclamation mark bit of speculation on Truth Social. He criticized the helicopter pilots as well as “the control tower," writing, “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”

Eleven hours later, he brought more outrage with him to the briefing room. And this time, he had more blame to assign. Not content to wait for the investigation, he blamed the air traffic controllers, Democrats in general, and a diversity agenda that, he said, had replaced competent but “too white” air traffic controllers with unqualified DEI hires.

Politically, he saw the crash as a gift, a confirmation that his crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is on the right track. The villains of the crash, he suggested, were Obama, Biden, and Biden’s Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg.

“I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put policy first. And they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen,” he said. “Their policy was horrible and their politics was even worse.”

As proof, he quoted the Federal Aviation Administration’s now-deleted diversity, equity, and inclusion page on its website, contending that the recruitment of air traffic controllers had been broadened to include people with disabilities relating to “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, and dwarfism.” He did not mention that the page was on the website all through his first term. Nor did he mention that the FAA told Fox News that the hiring of disabled people was for positions at the FAA other than air traffic controllers.

In contrast, Trump said, “We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. … They have to be talented, naturally talented geniuses. You can’t have regular people doing that job.”

He attacked Buttigieg, who had overseen the FAA. “That guy’s a real winner. … 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 bullshit,” said Trump, adding Buttigieg had run the FAA “into the ground with his diversity.”

Buttigieg shot back quickly, calling the president’s comments “despicable.” In a post on X, he wrote, “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.”

Trump promised to "get to the bottom of” the crash. He conceded, “We do not know what led to this crash," before adding that that wouldn't stop him from offering speculation: “We have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we’ll probably state those opinions now.” He said he was airing these opinions because of frustration at seeing past investigations take as long as three years.

“We will state certain opinions,” he declared before launching into his diversity diatribe. He also seemed to blame the pilot of the Army helicopter based on his own experience flying in helicopters. “I have helicopters,” he said, adding, “You could have slowed down the helicopter substantially. You could have stopped the helicopter. You could have gone up. You could have gone down. You could have gone straight up, straight down. You could have turned. You could have done a million different maneuvers.”

Reporters pressed Trump repeatedly to back up his speculation. Asked what evidence he had that diversity played a role in the crash, he responded, “It just could have been.” He conceded, “So we don’t know.” Asked if he was getting ahead of the just-started investigation, he replied, “I don’t think so at all.”

Pressed again on why he is so convinced diversity caused the crash when there has been no investigation, he said, “Because I have common sense, and unfortunately, a lot of people don’t.”

He several times seemed to blame the pilot of the helicopter. “You don’t know,” he said. “But the helicopter obviously was in the wrong place at the wrong time and a tragedy occurred.”

He concluded his appearance in the briefing room with a parting shot at Democratic policies and some advice for Americans wary of flying. Democrats “like to do things and they like to take them too far and this is sometimes what ends up happening,” he said, assuring the public that “we are already hiring people” to run the system. “Flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way.”

Democrats responded to Trump’s performance with outrage.

“I thought the president's press conference was disgusting,” Sen. Chris Murphy told National Journal. “The idea that the crash happened because the FAA hires nonwhite men is unconscionable, especially after he threw the FAA into chaos. He ousted the administrator. He fired the entire Safety Board. He's been waging a war on public employees for a week and a half, including those at the FAA.” He added, “We don't know what happened, but for the president to claim that it's because the FAA hires women or Black people is downright disgusting.”

In a video posted to social media, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said: “Bodies are still being pulled from the Potomac. The President and extreme MAGA Republicans are blaming women and people of color for the deadly plane crash. At the same time, they are dismantling the Federal Aviation Administration as we know it. Disgusting.”

Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida, a senior member of the House Transportation Committee, called the president’s comments “abysmal and sickening.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, whose term comes to an end this week, was even less measured, calling the president “this heartless imbecile.”