Racist President Blames DEIA For Own Incompetence

The tragic fatal air collision is part of a deeper pattern of deregulation that corporate media continues to ignore and corporate bought politicians continue to enable

On January 29th, America witnessed its first mid-air aviation disaster in 16 years. An Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines plane collided in the air near Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport. There are at least 67 reported deaths, and no survivors. Families are mourning the lives lost in this horrific tragedy, and instead of offering accountability and leadership, Donald Trump immediately blamed diversity.

This is what happens when ideology replaces expertise. And if history is any guide, this may not be the last such tragedy as Republicans insist on devaluing human life at the altar of deregulation—an injustice corporate media rarely addresses. But we will.

Let’s Address This.

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The Republican Religion: Deregulation

For decades, Republicans have preached the gospel of deregulation, telling the American people that government oversight is the enemy. And every time they gut critical safety measures, disaster follows:

• GOP deregulated the mortgage industry → Housing market collapse
• GOP deregulated the banking industry → Banks failed
• GOP deregulated the railroad industry → Trains derailed
• GOP deregulated the food industry → Fatal food poisoning outbreaks
• GOP deregulated the aviation industry → Planes crash, and people die

To be fair, corporate Democrats joined the GOP in deregulating the banking industry in the 1990s, leading to the eventual collapse. However, after Obama enacted banking reforms during his term, Trump and MAGA Republicans again deregulated banks during Trump’s first term—leading to another near banking collapse in SVB.

And granted, we are awaiting the official report on this FAA disaster. But that’s what makes Trump’s condemnation of diversity as the absolute cause of this tragedy that much more bizarre—especially when all signs point to his own reckless decisions to deregulate the FAA even during his first term as contributing factors. For example, in 2017 Trump issued Executive Order 13,771, which mandated that for every new regulatory rule enacted, a federal agency (such as the FAA) would need to repeal two regulations.1

As a result, scholars at the American Bar Association analyzed the data a year later and found that the unfortunate impact of this Trump rule was that while the FAA is, “an agency whose every rule is meant to increase transportation safety,” that as a result of Trump's deregulatory orders, “The FAA may be avoiding any new rulemaking that would have to be justified under the new regulatory mandate.” I am horrified that the FAA feels restricted from making new rules to keep us safe, yet this is what Trump’s deregulation rules have enforced.

The FAA Was Sabotaged in Real Time

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) exists to keep air travel safe. It ensures planes are maintained, air traffic controllers are trained and staffed, and flight systems operate with maximum safety standards. And yet, in his first nine days in office, Trump deliberately dismantled key safety measures within the FAA. Here’s the timeline:

• January 20: FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker was forced to step down after Elon Musk pressured him to resign for fining SpaceX over regulatory violations.
• January 21: Trump enacted a hiring freeze on air traffic controllers, despite an ongoing shortage, putting all travelers in unnecessary and preventable danger.
• January 22: The FAA’s Aviation Safety Advisory Committee was disbanded—Trump claimed this would "make flying safer." (More about this below).
• January 28: Trump administration issues directive to arbitrarily force out FAA employees (wrongly reported by corporate media as a 'buyout'), gutting experienced professionals, with no plan for replacement or analysis on whether such roles can safely be eliminated.
• January 29: America suffers its first fatal mid-air collision in 16 years. Every person involved in this tragic collision dies.

Let’s be clear—this is not an accident. This is what happens when you remove trained professionals, cut safety oversight, and let billionaires dictate policy. The FAA is running on fumes because Trump and his enablers made it that way. And worse, rather than take any responsibility, Trump is blaming Black, brown, and disabled people, and doing what he does best—lie.

Trump’s Lies and Blame Game

Instead of addressing the direct role his policies played in this disaster, Trump did what he always does—blamed Black and brown people.

When asked how he knew "diversity" was to blame for the crash, Trump responded:
"Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t."

This is not leadership. It’s racism. And it’s a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. As I’ve written before, actual common sense demonstrates that across industries diversity increases productivity, increases performance, increases profit, and increases safety and security. But Trump’s hypocritical and racist stance is how he operates in every aspect of his life. Consider that while he sends ICE after Latino Americans to arrest and deport them, he has never once sent ICE into white majority schools, even though we know there are at least half a million undocumented mostly white Canadian and European immigrants in the United States right now.2 While he lifts sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers who are instigating actual mass violence and terrorism against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,3 he’s stripping visas from students who dared march peacefully within First Amendment protections for Palestinian liberation.4

And now, while he himself deregulates the FAA, he blames anything that goes wrong on Black and brown and disabled people. Never mind that the helicopter pilot, the airplane pilot, and the former FAA head were all able bodied white males. Never mind that air traffic staffing was reportedly “not normal” due to ongoing staffing shortages5 (even despite which Trump is trying to further shrink the size of the FAA). The racism and ableism is nauseating. Trump's executive order, issued just days before the crash, baselessly claimed that the FAA had been hiring people with "severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis" due to DEI initiatives.6 There is no evidence of this. None. But it apparently does not matter—Trump knows his base will believe whatever he tells them, no matter how absurd.

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg responded to Trump’s grotesque comments, stating:

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. 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.

I doubt Trump has the integrity to do any of those things. But speaking of DEIA and American Airlines, American Airlines ended its DEIA program in December after Stephen Miller’s legal group threatened lawsuits. The idea that DEIA had anything to do with this crash is a blatant lie designed to shift attention from the very real damage Trump has already done. Consider the absurdity that Trump himself issued Executive Orders to deregulate the airline industry, and then as standards fall, he blames the airlines for operating on lower standards.

The Cost of Deregulation Is Human Life

This is bigger than partisan politics. The families mourning tonight come from all walks of life, all political backgrounds—but they are all Americans, and most importantly, they are human beings first. We should be demanding answers, demanding accountability, and demanding the restoration of safety regulations that protect all of us when we travel.

Trump’s recklessness has already killed Americans. And if this is just a preview of what’s to come, then we must stand united to ensure his incompetence doesn’t claim even more lives. We cannot let these culture wars distract us from the truth—this is about class, about power, and about a government that is being weaponized against its own people.

We deserve better. Let’s demand it.

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1https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/air_space_lawyer/Summer2018/asl_v031n02_summer18_obrienorr.pdf

2 https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-population/state/US

3 https://www.axios.com/2025/01/24/trump-lifts-sanctions-israeli-settlers-west-bank

4 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-cancel-student-visas-all-hamas-sympathizers-white-house-2025-01-29/

5 https://abc7chicago.com/post/deadly-dc-plane-crash-highlights-ongoing-air-traffic-control-staffing-shortages-challenges/15849959/

6 https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ends-dei-madness-and-restores-excellence-and-safety-within-the-federal-aviation-administration/