As Kansas mourns tragic crash, Trump’s talking points are DEI and dwarfs | Opinion
President Donald Trump started his presentation on the Flight 5342 tragedy with a moment of silence.
It would have been so much immeasurably better if he’d left it at that.
But he’s Donald Trump, so no such luck.
Instead, he turned it into one of his patented raving rants about how great he is, how it’s Joe Biden’s fault anyway, and how everything would be so much better if only all those pesky minority and disabled people knew their place.
I don’t know how Trump’s remarks are being received in the rest of the country, but Wichita is a city in mourning. We’re reeling from the deadly crash Wednesday night of American Airlines Flight 5342, a Wichita-to-Washington jet that collided with an Army helicopter on approach to Reagan National Airport. The 64 airline passengers and crew and the three soldiers in the helicopter all died.
Our social media here today is filled with posts objecting to the president’s performance. I have scoured the pages of his staunchest supporters in and around Wichita and can’t find a single expression of support for what the president said at his whatever-that-was at the White House. I won’t dignify it by calling it a news conference, because there was precious little news revealed.
We still don’t know who all the crash victims are. But we do know they include local folks, visiting hunters, and skaters and their families who were on the way home after delighting Wichita in last week’s U.S. Figure Skating national championships.
When I watched Trump’s show, I was surprised at the harsh tack he took. In retrospect, I don’t know why.
It’s the same play he just ran against the wildfire-ravaged people of Southern California, seeking to exploit tragedy for political gain. In California, he used the disastrous fires in a naked attempt to leverage changes he demands in state water policy and voting rights.
Now, he’s trying to leverage the plane crash to gin up support for his crusade to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government and business, programs that benefit women, minorities, veterans and people with disabilities.
Trump more or less dispassionately read a statement of sympathy, no doubt written for him by some poor schmuck who’ll probably lose his job in the White House for being too compassionate.
“In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations,” Trump said. “We are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.”
Sadly, Donald Trump can read those words, but he doesn’t know the meaning of “heartbroken.”
The presentation quickly veered off into his two favorite subjects, himself and people he despises.
It came off as a futile attempt to project an empathy that he apparently is incapable of feeling — as sincere as a telemarketer expressing his deep concern that your car’s extended warranty may be about to expire.
Compulsory expressions of compassion over, Trump moved on to the meat of his statement, alternately blaming air-traffic controllers and the flight crew of the military helicopter for the tragedy — even though the investigation is just beginning and bodies were still being pulled from the wreckage.
Trump saved his harshest criticism for former presidents Biden and Barack Obama, who he asserted weakened standards on hiring and training air traffic controllers, claiming that he had strengthened those requirements during his first term.
“And then when I left office and Biden took over, he changed them back to lower than ever before,” Trump said. “I put safety first. Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen, because this was the lowest level.”
His so-called evidence was a couple of stories from right-wing media sources objecting to a Federal Aviation Administration policy seeking to recruit and accommodate Americans with disabilities.
“The FAA’s website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism; all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot, a little dot on the map, little runway,” Trump said.
It’s worth noting here that the web history of the FAA site showed no changes to that policy going back to 2013. It also ignores that the FAA employs tens of thousands of people in jobs ranging from controllers and safety engineers to whoever stocks the Cokes in the vending machines at headquarters.
When this came up a year ago, the FAA explained that not every hire qualifies for every job in the agency, and that controllers especially have to meet rigorous standards.
I spent hours Wednesday night and Thursday morning listening to recordings of the communications traffic between the tower, pilots and first responders. I came away deeply impressed by the professionalism on display.
Faced with the most horrifying scenario that can happen to an airport operations staff, they calmly ordered planes to hold in place while they coordinated a search and rescue mission using every asset they could muster.
So 67 people have died horrible deaths, thousands are mourning them here and elsewhere, and Trump’s talking points are DEI and dwarfs.
Mr. President, with all due respect, people are grieving here. And you’re not helping anybody, even yourself.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
