It was Goebbels who suggested that fascists should blame their enemies of that which the fascists were guilty of. The Trump administration has clearly taken his advice to heart. As the Guardian has reported:
Trump turned what might have been a sombre a press conference into a baseless rant against DEI, despite no evidence of a link with the crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, which involved an American Airlines jet and a US military helicopter.
The president was backed by the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who said “we can only accept the best and the brightest” in positions affecting passenger safety, and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who said: “The era of DEI is gone at the defense department and we need the best and brightest.”
Then came the vice-president, JD Vance, who claimed, “we want to hire the best people … actually competent enough to do the job”, and said without offering evidence that hundreds had sued the US government because “they would like to be air traffic controllers, but they were turned away because of the color of their skin”.
At the time that they spoke, the names of the victims of this crash were not known, although some have emerged since.
The sheer randomness of what has happened can only make the grief of those who have lost loved ones, whether relatives or friends, very hard. They have my genuine sympathy. Nothing more needed to be offered right now.
Not one of them needed a bunch of white men wading in with racist claims that people who are not white are of lower intelligence and are to blame for what has happened. But that is what they got.
Overt, blatant, utterly unjustified, totally inappropriate and profoundly offensive comments were offered by four successive speakers from the Trump administration, whose response was obviously co-ordinated around their supposed desire to hire the 'best and brightest', who they very clearly implied would, in their opinion, be white, male, Christian (albeit in name only) and heterosexual. The idea that there might be a master race was being made in plain sight when mourning was in order.
Meanwhile, we do know that the person managing air traffic control at the time of the crash was doing the job of two people. Was the other missing because they had already accepted Trump's very recent offer to quit? Since air traffic controllers are federal employees, and almost all of them received such offers, it's an actual question that needs to be asked.
What need never have been said was what Trump and his thugs had to offer the White House press corps, the offence of which can never be undone and which will spread the hurt and pain of this accident far beyond the reach of those who will most immediately suffer. But that, of course, is precisely what Trump wanted.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
The control tower was understaffed but that has been a chronic issue in the US for years. If they want to attract the brightest and the best to fill all necessary positions, perhaps they should think about supply and demand, and air traffic control employees should be paid more.
But the real issue, it seems to me is that the pilot of the military helicopter said it had seen the civilian plane and would maintain a safe distance. Perhaps the crew were focusing on a different plane but they should have seen the one approaching if they were keeping a proper lookout. And I understand the helicopter was outside the usual corridor for its operations – flights along the river are meant to stay below 200 feet, but the collision was at 300 feet.
But that is just speculation. It is human nature to want to understand what happened and perhaps to try to apportion blame. But we need to wait for the facts to emerge. Assuming that is that US regulators are still capable of objective investigation and reporting without bending to the overriding political spin desired by their masters.
The first part of this episode of ‘The Rest is Politics’ is worth watching in relation to your post on Trump, supporting your observation and analysis.
“ How many ‘early warning signs of fascism’ are we seeing in the US? Has Trump delivered a fatal blow to America’s soft power around the world?…
Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more.”
https://youtu.be/U0fdoOxkN4o?si=84iSMpABweGGqG_O
Thanks
He went further in blaming DEI
“The FAA website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualified for the position of a controller of air planes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot. A little dot on the map.
This article seems quite prescient
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12962801/FAA-recruit-workers-severe-intellectual-psychiatric-disabilities.html
While it appears this week’s tragedy wasn’t connected to hiring policy, there was still an accident waiting to happen. Imv of course.
You do realise, don’t you that a) The Mail is a paper that once supported Hitler, b) it now supports Trump and c) working for the FAA does not necessarily mean you are an air traffic controller? No? I thought not.
Yes indeed – I know all three of those things.
Why post a link to such an article then. Are you profoundly prejudiced?
I am in no way taking up for Michael Whittaker as I could never take up for someone who quotes ‘The Fail”.
My husband is a pilot and is well versed in the goings-on of the FFA.
The main problem with the FFA is same problem with many government agencies ( no matter what Trump says). There is a shortage of skilled workers to fill the seats of the employees who are aging out and retiring. This has been a problem for the last 10 years. Most air traffic controllers come out of the military and the military is not training the number of people they did 20 years ago. Also, fewer people are serving in the military simply because there are fewer people in the correct age demographic to serve.
And he is going to make things very much worse.
I know what happened & it’s all very unfair on Trump.
A bunch of transexuals in air traffic control were having an orgy.
Trump on an unscheduled visit to air traffic control tried to bring order to things (how do you bring order to an orgy?) but became rather involved
(I understand he is still looking for his underpants)
Apparently the video is up for auction
In fairness (eh?) this is no more unlikely than what is excreted from the Presidents office.
This piece from ‘The Atlantic’ by Timothy W. Ryback is well worth the time spent reading it: ‘How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days: He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.’
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/hitler-germany-constitution-authoritarianism/681233/
Mr Ryback’s words, ‘Hitler had campaigned on the promise of draining the “parliamentarian swamp”—den parlamentarischen Sumpf—only to find himself now foundering in a quagmire of partisan politics and banging up against constitutional guardrails. He responded as he invariably did when confronted with dissenting opinions or inconvenient truths: He ignored them and doubled down.’
Sounds familiar?
Very familiar
After watching the news conference given by the N.T.S.B, where both the chair, and I assume the lead investigator, spoke about the procedures they were putting in place to investigate this tragedy, I had a look at their website. Now I’ve watched air crash investigation programmes for years, but what I didn’t realise, was that the board members seemingly have to disclose their political affiliation. Possibly that is why the chair, Jennifer Homendy, looked distinctly nervous. She is a Democrat.
Hi,
Firstly, I like your site, I’m a first time visitor. Lots of great articles, well done for speaking the truth.
I’d just like to post an observation really. I’m recently retired from Network Rail. I worked ‘lineside’ ie on the tracks, in signals and telecoms. About 15 years ago I developed tinnitus in one ear, this was identified at a regular medical the NR insists upon. I was immediatley removed from lineside working, despite being fully competant in my work. I was now a ‘safety risk’ to both myself and my team, and so the rest of my career was spent away from the tracks basically.
So from a DEI perspective, whilst NR are totally hot on DEI, they also appreciate that safety ‘Trumps’ all.
Regards,
Carry on the good work.
Of course – but there was other work you could do
I am certain. The same thinking was found in the FFA
A disability does not write a person off
I know people will call for my head but I do not believe that trump is really a racist because he sees only one color and that color is GREEN, the color of money.
Trump spouts all this racist rhetoric and will try to appear he is carrying out this racist rhetoric because the people who got him elected (the racists) want to hear this shit and Trump has nothing else to offer them. One cannot forget that Trump was elected both times on pretty thin margins with regard to what the individuals voter actually wanted.
2016 Popular vote 62,984,828 (Trump) 65,853,514 (Clinton)
2024 Popular vote 77,302,580 (Trump) 75,017,613 (Harris)
The people that really made the difference in the 2024 election were the racists (largest group) and/or the people who were hit very hard by inflation.
Turns out Trump’s new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, in his last term in Congress in 2019 before resigning – he was a Representative for Wisconsin – voted against funding the Federal Aviation Administration the powers of which include air traffic control.
Dearie me!
A fox in charge of the hen house.
A few days ago, I mentioned that Trump 2.0 would be far more unhinged, and this event clearly illustrates that.
I’m not an expert in American politics, but I recall hearing during the last campaign from commentators on both sides that, during Trump 1.0, there were some sensible, decent people around him who acted as “guardrails.” I suppose those people might have included Mike Pence or John Kelly. Some right-wing commentators even suggested that Trump 2.0 would be much the same, thanks to those guardrails.
A moment like this speaks volumes. Any statesman in a position of leadership knows that when a tragedy occurs, they should respond delicately, offer comfort, and unite the nation in shared sentiment. That, and a promise that events will be investigated, and solutions found, is all that is required in those early moments. This was the perfect opportunity for those “guardrails” to step in and prevent Trump from going off the rails.
I really don’t think there are any. If anything, I think he is emboldened by his second win, and will be more unhinged.
Those people are now living in fear. Most are under direct threat. I keep wondering when the night of the long knives might be.
They need to seek safety abroad, if possible. I hope they have connections who can help them.
The guy is totally unhinged and off the rails as the commenter above mentions. Those around him are showing themselves to be bampots just like their dear brain-farting leader.
How much worse he might get is anybody’s guess but those in power around him have either lost the plot like him or are so craven they won’t challenge his haverings or prevent him running off at the mouth. What he has been saying about the D.C., air crash is so disrespectful to the families and friends of those killed at this terrible time in their lives.