MINDEN, NEVADA - OCTOBER 08: Former U.S. President Donald Trump salutes supporters during a campaign rally at Minden-Tahoe Airport on October 08, 2022 in Minden, Nevada. Former U.S. President Donald Trump held a campaign style rally for Nevada GOP candidates ahead of the state's midterm election on November 8th. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

‘So f—— disgusting’: Trump heartlessly attempts to blame DEI for the D.C. plane crash

An American Airlines jet with 67 people on board crashed into the Potomac River after a collision with an Army helicopter. During this moment of tragedy, President Donald Trump unexpectedly blamed hiring practices among air traffic controllers.

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Trump expressed sympathies to those affected by the crash. While he acknowledged that many are mourning the crash, the president couldn’t withhold his opinion on the crash. Trump claimed that he changed Obama’s standards and prioritized “psychologically superior” people to become air traffic controllers in 2016. “We’ll restore faith in American air travel,” he boasted, then went on to talk about the Federal Aviation Administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices. He expressed disgust for the FAA’s alleged DEI push to hire “people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.”

Capitalizing on a crisis

The president made these claims before investigations began. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and nothing is confirmed. Assigning blame on DEI practices isn’t just an offhanded opinion—it’s a confusing and harmful assertion. The plane is presumed to have no survivors, and two foreign nationals were onboard. Yet, the President of the United States is already making incredulous claims about the situation.

Social media users condemned Trump’s remarks. One X user wrote, “This is so f— disgusting.” Another commenter on X accused Trump of having no sense of accountability over the situation. Meanwhile, Representative Summer Lee from Pennsylvania called the president’s remarks “absolutely vile.” She added that the president didn’t use his platform to share condolences or to share facts. It was “just to push a bigoted political agenda.”

While this may not be the president’s fault, this moment of crisis shouldn’t be used to sow divisive rhetoric. His scorn for DEI practices is well-recorded from his remarks to his executive orders. Those opinions don’t matter at the moment—clarity and truth do.


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Vanessa Esguerra
Vanessa Esguerra (She/They) has been a Contributing Writer for The Mary Sue since 2023. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy, she (happily) rejected law school in 2021 and has been a full-time content writer since. Vanessa is currently taking her Master's degree in Japanese Studies in hopes of deepening her understanding of the country's media culture in relation to pop culture, women, and queer people like herself. She speaks three languages but still manages to get lost in the subways of Tokyo with her clunky Japanese. Fueled by iced coffee brewed from local cafés in Metro Manila, she also regularly covers anime and video games while queuing for her next match in League of Legends.