Speaking to reporters from the Brady Briefing Room at the White House Thursday, President Donald Trump went after former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for failed management of the agency. Trump's remarks came less than 24 hours after a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial American Airlines flight Wednesday night. All 67 individuals involved in the crash were killed and a recovery mission by first responders is still underway in the Potomac River.
Trump calls out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for his terrible management of the department.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 30, 2025
"He's a disaster. He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground. And he's a disaster now. He's just got a good line of bullsh*t." pic.twitter.com/AMRfcZcDLm
Just two days into his second term, Trump signed an executive order eliminating dangerous DEI programs from the Federal Aviation Administration and reinstated skill qualifications for air traffic controllers.
The FAA under Biden wanted more pilots and air traffic controllers with IMPAIRED vision or severe intellectual disabilities pic.twitter.com/puMYDH88yl
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 30, 2025
From the White House:
FLIGHTS SHOULD BE SUPERVISED BY THE BEST EMPLOYEES: President Donald J. Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum terminating a Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hiring policy that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency.
This Presidential Memorandum orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.
It also requires the FAA Administrator to review the past performance and performance standards of all FAA employees in critical safety positions and make clear that any individual who fails to demonstrate adequate capability is replaced by someone who will ensure Americans’ flight safety and efficiency.
MILLIONS OF AMERICANS RELY ON SAFE, TIMELY AIR TRAVEL EVERY DAY: Safety and competence should be the only job criteria for FAA employees, yet the Biden Administration violated the public trust—as well as the law—by prioritizing illegal DEI hiring.
Every day, more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers traveling for work or fun or to visit friends and family entrust their lives to the FAA.
Almost unbelievably, as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative, the Biden FAA specifically recruited and hired individuals with “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA.
President Trump is immediately terminating this illegal and dangerous program and requiring that all FAA hiring be based solely on ensuring the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence.
On January 11, 2023, two weeks after a major holiday airline crisis, an FAA system outage caused by employees missteps grounded all flights for the first time since 9/11, an illustration of the importance of FAA competence.
FULFILLING PROMISE TO END ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION AND BRING BACK COMMON SENSE: This Presidential Memorandum builds on President Trump’s day-one Executive Order ending the Biden Administration’s illegal and immoral DEI discrimination programs.
Meanwhile, Buttigieg is responding.
"Despicable. 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," Buttigieg posted on X. "President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe. Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again."
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