In a Thursday press briefing, President Trump criticized his predecessor for his management of the Federal Aviation Administration and suggested, without evidence, that diversity initiatives at the agency could be to blame for a deadly crash between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C.
“I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first,” Mr. Trump said. “The FAA’s website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.” Mr. Trump added that people in those categories would be “qualified” for controller positions, even though the agency’s statement does not say that.
The president continued, “Brilliant people have to be in those positions.”
It has been longstanding FAA policy — including before, during and after Mr. Trump’s first term — to include people with disabilities in recruitment. However, there is no evidence that these initiatives have compromised air safety or had any relation to the crash Wednesday night. The cause of the collision remains under investigation.
Air traffic controllers must undergo extensive training and meet rigorous standards, including physical and mental fitness tests. They cannot have a history of mental disorders or physical conditions that could interfere with their duties, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which is the chief human resources agency for the federal government.
Before Mr. Trump took office last week, there was a “Diversity and Inclusion” page on the FAA’s website, which stated the FAA had a “special emphasis in recruiting and hiring” people with the list of disabilities Trump cited.
The FAA has a range of roles beyond air traffic controllers, and its website does not indicate that these hires would be eligible for air traffic controller positions.
Additionally, the policy has been on the FAA’s website since at least February 2013, including throughout Trump’s first term. The policy page was recently removed from the website, archives show.
The head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which is the controllers’ union, said in a letter to its members that at this time it would be “premature to speculate on the root cause of this accident.”
Federal investigators have also said it is too early to determine the cause or what factors may have contributed to the crash. It was the first major commercial airline crash in the United States since 2009.
When asked by a reporter how he could come to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, Mr. Trump replied, “Because I have common sense.”
Mr. Trump was also asked why the “Diversity and Inclusion” policy was not changed on the FAA’s website throughout his first administration. He said, “I did change it. I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in and he changed it.” It’s unclear precisely what policy he was referring to.
Records show that initiatives aimed at expanding the workforce existed under President Trump’s first term, including a program launched in 2019 that aimed to recruit and train qualified individuals with disabilities, including veterans, for careers in air traffic operations.
This month, President Trump signed a memorandum titled “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation” which directed the FAA to end all diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI initiatives. He issued similar orders across the federal government.
In response to Mr. Trump’s claims on Thursday, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a post on X, “As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.”
Nick Daniels, the head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said, “America’s highly trained and skilled air traffic controllers all do amazing work every day keeping the nation’s passengers and cargo moving safely and efficiently to their destinations. We serve quietly, but events like this remind us of the weight we bear.”
CBS News reached out to the FAA about Mr. Trump’s remarks about its hiring practices, but the agency declined to comment.
