Trump’s despicable comments on diversity only highlight his political agenda

In addition to blaming predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump also ranted about former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him “a disaster” who had run the Federal Aviation Administration into the ground with diversity policies.

Indeed, Trump and his team leant into it, later inviting media to watch him sign a presidential memorandum to review all hiring decisions and safety protocols in the FAA over the past four years, and replace “any individuals who do not meet qualification standards”.

Trump’s anti-DEI war is cloaked in the language of merit and competence; the US should be a meritocracy, he says, especially when it comes to aviation safety, where only the best will do. There’s a valid debate to be had about corporate and government DEI practices, and thanks to the president’s election victory and subsequent decisions, that debate is very much being had – globally.

So there is no need for him to hijack and politicise this tragedy to double down on his agenda. Buttigieg shied away from reacting to Trump’s personal jibes but rightly described his broader comments as “despicable”. The British historian Simon Schama called them “nauseating”.

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“It’s difficult to find words adequate to the moral abyss from which such a response at such a time could possibly come,” Schama wrote on X. “No one resembling an actual human being could do this and say this.”

Congress members called it disgusting and racist.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is notoriously congested airspace surrounded by numerous military bases. There were at least two close calls at that airport last year – the same year Congress approved additional flights at the airport, despite objections from people such as Virginia senator Tim Kaine, who have sounded the alarm about this for some time.

Moreover, understaffing is a major issue at air traffic control towers across the US, and there are now reports that may have been an issue at Reagan on the night.

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Rampant public insinuation by no less than the president should thoroughly irk the NTSB, the world’s leading air crash investigation unit. At a press conference, its chair Jennifer Homendy said she briefed Trump in the afternoon – after his morning diatribe.

But when asked about all this, Homendy seemed nonplussed. The NTSB was used to speculation about crashes, she said – usually from the media.

Which goes to show the danger of normalising some of Trump’s behaviour. It’s not just some dude on the internet or a TV panelist pontificating about possible causes, it’s the President of the United States behind a podium in the White House.

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