Trump Defends Blaming DEI for Midair Collision Without Proof: 'I Have Common Sense, OK?'

Aviation authorities are still investigating the midair collision over Washington, DC, that killed at least 28 people, but President Donald Trump has already assigned blame: diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

"I have common sense, okay, and unfortunately, a lot of people don't," Trump said during a Thursday briefing. "We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level."

Trump spoke after a tragic crash involving an American Airlines flight and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River. While officials have not pointed to air traffic control as a factor in the accident, Trump used the incident to launch an attack on hiring practices at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), claiming past DEI efforts led to a decline in safety.

"This is a tragedy that should not have happened," Trump said before blaming former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden for what he called "political" hiring policies. He alleged that Obama-era FAA diversity initiatives lowered standards, which he reversed during his presidency, only for Biden to reinstate them.

"I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put politics first," Trump claimed. He went on to criticize the FAA for recruiting air traffic controllers with disabilities, including dwarfism, missing limbs, and intellectual disabilities.

"You're dealing with very high level, computer work, and very complex, computers, and one of the other things I will tell you is that the systems that were built, I was going to rebuild the entire system, and then we had an election that didn't turn out the way it should have," Trump added, suggesting that his re-election would have led to major milestones in aviation safety.

No evidence has yet surfaced tying diversity programs to the crash. Aviation safety experts have cautioned against drawing conclusions before the investigation is complete.

Trump also took shots at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him a "disaster" who had "run the FAA into the ground with his diversity."

Federal authorities have not indicated whether air traffic control played any role in the collision, and experts say it is premature to link the crash to hiring policies. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation, with a preliminary report expected in the coming weeks.