Trump says DEI hiring practices at FAA have got to go

By
Suzanne Downing
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95
Photo credit: FAA

President Donald Trump may have some information that others don’t have regarding control tower issues on the night of the devastating mid-air collision between an American Airlines commuter jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The White House attributed the incident to systemic failures at the Federal Aviation Administration, including hiring policies enacted during the Obama and Biden Administrations. Trump has directed an immediate assessment of all hiring decisions by the agency.

The statement specifically criticized changes in FAA hiring practices that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives over merit-based selection.

Must Read Alaska wrote about those policies one year ago. The FAA was recruiting people who were deaf, blind, had epilepsy, and those with severe mental illness.

FAA hiring targets: People with psychiatric problems and severe mental disabilities urged to apply

Regarding the collision, Trump said, “This shocking event follows problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  The Obama Administration implemented a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude.  During my first term, my Administration raised standards to achieve the highest standards of safety and excellence.  But the Biden Administration egregiously rejected merit-based hiring, requiring all executive departments and agencies to implement dangerous ‘diversity equity and inclusion’ tactics, and specifically recruiting individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities in the FAA.”

The statement reiterated that on the second day of the new Trump Administration, an executive order was issued to reinstate merit-based hiring in all federal agencies, including the FAA, prioritizing safety and competence in aviation oversight. The Trump Administration emphasized that this latest tragedy highlights the urgent need to ensure aviation safety remains uncompromised.

As part of the response to the incident, the White House announced that the Secretary of Transportation and the FAA Administrator have been directed to conduct a comprehensive review of all hiring decisions and safety protocols from the previous four years. The review will assess any deterioration in hiring standards and aviation safety procedures under the Biden Administration. Furthermore, the directive calls for the removal of any individuals who do not meet the qualification standards necessary to uphold rigorous aviation safety measures.

“Consistent with the Presidential Memorandum of January 21, 2025 (Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation), the Secretary and the Administrator shall take all actions necessary to reverse concerning safety and personnel trends during the prior four years,” the statement continued. “We must instill an unwavering commitment to aviation safety and ensure that all Americans fly with peace of mind.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FAA officials launched an official investigation into the cause of the collision.

More updates are expected as investigations continue.

95 COMMENTS

  2. This is the first time I disagreed with what Trump was saying, specifically he shouldn’t have gone political when 67 people died and he was there to officially give an announcement of the incident. He should have waited a couple of days.

    • How did you see him going political? Saw what you saw, but takeaway here was a President aware of the situation, saddened by it but determined to find answers and fix the deadly problem with due credit to Biden, Mayor Pete, and the FAA bureaucracy for creating it?
      .
      No right or wrong answer, interested in your take. Madam Editor published FAA’s DEI memo here last January, what did you think of it?

      • Eric, you’re wrong. You can’t trust the government or what none of the government department say anymore so coming from the president’s mouth it’s gonna be more truthful.
        I would much rather have qualified people watching out for safety than people that don’t make the cut. It’s the American citizens right to know that woke. May be a big part of this problem.
        The shows that who you hire is more important than what you hire, but not according to the politicians as Obama and Biden’s policies are now being shown to be a huge, huge failures, not only in this incident, but the border and all of the crime that’s happened since the border has been opened up.
        I want to hear the truth and I don’t trust any government agency right now except for the president.

  3. The White House has no business attributing this incident to anything. Let the NTSB do their job, as they always do, before you start flapping your mouth, Donald. That’s the way it works. Until then, ST*U.

    And by the way, if your daughters ever became air traffic controllers, you’d be beaming with pride. If anyone claims they were a DEI hire and therefore less-qualified, you’d be offended. For sure.

    Years ago Journalism was an all-male occupation. So how the heck did all these females get into the gig? Was it DEI? Are they really qualified? Maybe they should be offered a “Fork in the Road”. Surely Journalism is only work for White Males, right?

    No? Well then consider the parallels: All Journalism requires is intellect, a keyboard, communication skills, and sitting behind a desk. Exactly the same as air traffic controllers!

    • Women can certainly be qualified to be controllers but for you to say a controllers skill level is comparable to a journalists is insane. An air traffic controller has to be able to process an incredible amount of information gleaned from pilots that can be difficult to understand at an incredibly fast pace with hundreds of lives at stake. A journalist can hit the pause button. Not so with a controller. Pull your head out.

    • Love that strawman don’t you dog?
      President Trump took a preemptive shot at the obvious – why didn’t air traffic control control the air traffic? FAA says “not enough ATCs”. All of us will wait months for the NTSB and FAA investigators to find enough bureaucratic butt covers to minimize the lawsuits – that’s all we will learn.
      We don’t need a scapegoat – 67 people are dead, because someone made a mistake. Sounds like a management issue. I won’t delve into all the FAA’s mgmt problems – I will only say that more money for both the agency and the ATCs, and cushier work conditions for this high-stress job will not solve the issues.

    • If my daughter was hired to be an air traffic controller simply based on her gender I would be very concerned, not proud.

    • “The MRAK reader has no business attributing this incident to anything. Let the NTSB do their job, as they always do, before you start flapping your mouth. That’s the way it works. Until then, ST*U.”
      .
      Please share that with everyone who is armchair quarterbacking this incident with no knowledge except what the mainstream news headlines say.

      • Everybody has the right to voice opinions.
        You’re not the speech cop.
        Where were you when Obama said he could be my son?
        People will comment on everything it’s called free speech.
        I do agree unless you know for sure you can’t say what happened and with the lying government and fake news there is little real information that can be relied on.

    • This too:
      “If anyone claims they were a DEI hire and therefore less-qualified, you’d be offended. For sure.”
      .
      If DEI is so fantastic, why the offense? Any parent that supports DIE in any way should be thrilled to see their child benefit from it. DIE is a good thing, right?
      The FAA should be selling bumper stickers that say “My child is a DIE hire at the FAA!”
      .
      Or… is merit based hiring actually what EVERYONE wants across the board? Your statement quoted above clearly indicates that.

    • Acute, or chronic results is the difference. ATC work is acute with outcomes that rarely cause harm. Malevolent propaganda journalists effects are chronic, and untreated will cause malignant mental harm like TDS. Please seek treatment dog.

    • Dog, this massive failure happened on Biden’s watch. 99 percent of all air traffic control facilities are undermanned. Controllers are working overtime. They are fatigued.

      Sec. Buttplug was a disaster. This weirdo took massive amounts of leave so he could “nurse” HIS babies. Yeah, that was much more important than his actually running DOT.

      Everything you Democrats touch turns to shit. Look at California. High crime. Businesses closing. High taxes, and now great parts of LA county are destroyed. Toxic waste everywhere. Toxins leaking into the ocean. Insurance companies fleeing. Tens of billions of dollars of property destroyed.

      Democrats are evil, stupid, and a clear and present threat to our country.

      • Well, I’m a lot of things but evil is not one of them. Why do you despise me when you don’t even know me? That says a lot more about you than it does me.

        And to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, he once said “I don’t think I like that man very much…. I must get to know him better”. That seems like good advice for everyone here on MRAK.

        • Dog,

          Your party leader dropped an atomic bomb on a civilian city. Twice. Killing men, women and children by the tens of thousands.

          Hitler deliberately killed 6 million Jews. Your party has now killed over 63 million unborn kids since 1973. If Hilter was evil, isn’t the party that has killed ten times the number of innocent people worse?

          Your “progressives” supported eugenics.

          Democrats supported segregation, and also founded the KKK.

          And you say you aren’t evil.

    • Dog, what a ignorant statement: “Well then consider the parallels: All Journalism requires is intellect, a keyboard, communication skills, and sitting behind a desk. Exactly the same as air traffic controllers!”

    • Air traffic controllers have lot more on their plate than journalists. The worst journalists can do is put out fake news with an end result of people being misinformed (which is a daily occurrence with mainstream media). Incompetent controllers can kill people.

  6. I’ll never forget the cold day in November 1986 when Ronald Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.
    My oh my has the Republican Party changed.
    Change is inevitable but values don’t waver in the wind.

    • This is from a google search search:on your rant about Reagan’s version of his amnesty:”authority to legalize the status of minor children of parents granted amnesty under the immigration overhaul,””announcing a blanket deferral of deportation for children under 18 who were living in a two-parent household with both parents legalizing or with a single parent who was ..””. Much different then today, Where we have drug gangs USING YOUNG children as their drug mules and once they’re across the river…dump them, and all the military aged youth coming over with military equipment.

  8. Huh, so it appears Trump’s first administration launched the recruitment program he now blames (without evidence).

    Interesting…

    ‘https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/30/faa-dei-trump-fact-checker/

  9. No!!!!!!
    I demand only the most retarded and incapable people telling planes where to go and following up on the safety.
    That’s sarcasm Greg. Take your finger off the caps lock button.

  10. The FAA is the last place you want DEI trash working. You always have gravity working against you and gravity doesn’t give two schittz who or what you are.

  11. This is my opinion….Donald Trump is not, should not, and will never be a role model throughout this globe, mars, the Milky Way or wherever in the AI freakish sphere, when it comes to human empathy, care, diplomacy, tact, or compassion.

    That is common well-accepted knowledge.

    He does not hide that.

    He has other strengths and he needs to get back to those strengths sooner than later.

    We’ve just lived through a bafoon, Biden with the same lack of human capacity.

    Who ruined our lives.

    It is traumatic-stop giving the microphone to our presidents when it’s being used to degrade them, suck up for ratings, and participate in disrespecting the people in shock.

    We agree Trump is capable of saying callous things.

    There’s no excuse.

    But he better start using his business-minded talent to turn around this country and defer the cultural comments to SNL.

  12. This is an example of the massive leadership gulf between Reagan and Trump. Reagan would fix the issue, but in a time of mourning, would have led his country.

    • Uh… Reagan started making the problem during his time in office by busting Air Traffic Controlers union and cutting their budget so they would be understaffed.. and filled with unqualified staff at that.

  13. He has turned into a narcissistic monster and feels invincible and unbound by law, he has become dangerous to society and economic progress. Soon, the 48% of support that he gleened in the election will feel the hurt and come to realization that we can’t endure his rath any longer. I hope that happens before the rest of the planet comes to the same conclusion.

  15. Such an awful tragic accident elicits a lot of emotion and subjective speculation. We won’t know the cause of the accident until the investigation is complete but it isn’t too far fetched to attribute possible mistakes to DEI. Aside from the tragedy, hiring should never be based on attributes that have nothing to do with ability and achievement.

  18. The FAA has a long history of doing nothing until a lot of people have been killed in airplane crashes. Changes that could be made in industry in a few years require decades at the FAA. The agency is incompetent and always has been. The Didn’t Earn It mantra has only made it worse if that’s even possible.

  20. After following the successful career of a close family friend who was an ATC and later a ATC trainer, I can tell you that DEI or political correctness has indeed changed the effectiveness of the FAA. Good people passed over because they had the wrong skin color, experienced military ATCs who were not hired by the FAA because they were not of a favored race. My friend professionalism, procedure and vigilance replaced by something else. The current policies need to end.

  21. It’s times like these we once again realize what we have elected in Trump, A petty cowardly narcissist who shouldn’t have been elected dog catcher. But here we are.

  22. A total scumbag comment from the president claiming DEI had anything to do with the crash based on zero evidence and because he has “common sense.” But to most on here I’m sure you love it since daddy said it.

    • Dodo, there is plenty of proof that 44 and 46 went ape —- crazy loading up our public servants up with unqualified. Many of them to faa with mental and physical disabilities. Are you ok with them being charged with one of the largest scopes of public safety? I’m not.

  23. Some people would prefer their President and those surrounding their President lie to them, instead of tell them the truth. The last four years taught us that undeniable fact.

  24. This is from a google search search:on your rant about Reagan’s version of his amnesty:”authority to legalize the status of minor children of parents granted amnesty under the immigration overhaul,””announcing a blanket deferral of deportation for children under 18 who were living in a two-parent household with both parents legalizing or with a single parent who was ..””. Much different then today, Where we have drug gangs USING YOUNG children as their drug mules and once they’re across the river…dump them, and all the military aged youth coming over with military equipment.

  25. What is taking you so long , Sue ? It’s literally being reported everywhere that the helo pilot was a dyke. Trump was right, Trump is always right ! You could be winning internet points by writing a hit piece trashing that dyke pilot right now, come on, no rest for the weary, now. This literally IS your bread and butter, you get to trash talk a dead lesbian military pilot who just happened to kill a bunch of innocent people. What are you waiting for, Sue ?

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