In the immediate aftermath of the fatal incident between an American Airlines plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, it appeared to be two President Donald Trumps.
The accident, which occurred over the Potomac River as the aircraft was attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Reagan National Airport while on a teaching mission, is the first for Trump’s emerging next administration, which has had a history of unequal handling of tragedies during his first term.
As 67 families learned their loved ones, including 60 flight passengers, four team members, and three military personnel, were victims of the accident, the White House portrayed Trump as a standard, stable, and measured commander in chief on Wednesday before the senator returned to the campaign-style, reality TV star legislator, speculating about the cause of the incident hours after the blast before delivering a free-wheeling press briefing on Thursday.
Trump was only” channeling the American people’s thoughts and concerns,” according to Republican strategist John Feehery.
” He asks searching concerns”, Feehery told the Washington Examiner. ” I think that is refreshing”.
However, Doug Heye, a previous communications director for the Republican National Committee, disagreed, arguing that “ultimately his in-person speech is what matters.”
” We’ve given up on Trump meeting the second like Reagan’s Challenger speech, but that was next-level terrible”, Heye told the Washington Examiner.
Trump’s effect “was not good”, John Pitney, a former Republican secretary and presently Claremont McKenna College politicians doctor, concurred, citing the government’s insinuations about the aircraft aircraft and air traffic controllers.
Trump “publicly speculated about the causes of the crash, which was not beneficial to the victims ‘ families or the investigators,” Pitney told the Washington Examiner.
Before making his first appearance in the room of his second administration, Trump played a game of blame, he began his briefing with a moment of silence to pay tribute to the loss of life. Despite admitting,” We do not know what caused this crash, but we have strong opinions and ideas,” the current president attributed the majority of the blame to the policies of former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Trump told reporters on Thursday morning,” You must have only the highest standards to work in our aviation system.” ” I put safety first. Obama, Biden, and the Democrats put the policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen because this was the lowest level. Their policy was horrible, and their politics was even worse”.
When asked for proof that the aviation industry and the cause of the accident had special problems with diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, Trump repeatedly cited” common sense” and said that “it just could have been.” The president then slightly moderated his criticism during a Thursday afternoon signing ceremony for executive orders.
” It may have. I don’t know. When asked about the role of race and gender in the Oval Office, he said,” Incompetence might have played a role.
During that event, Trump also quipped to a reporter who asked if he would visit the disaster site,” What’s the site? The water”?
But earlier in the briefing room, Trump singled out Biden , Transportation , Secretary , Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay confirmed Cabinet secretary, sarcastically as” a real winner”.
” Do you know how badly everything has run since he’s run the Department of Transportation”? he said. ” He’s a disaster. He’s just got a good line of bulls ***”.
Trump has a mixed record with regard to his handling of humanitarian crises, and he is not opposed to politicizing them, as demonstrated by last week’s trip to California and North Carolina, where the two states are battling their own recovery from fires and floods. He also used the trip to demonstrate his empathy, which his critics claim he lacks, while also using it to show his empathy.
After the storm that claimed more than 3, 000 lives, his opponents have criticized him for throwing toilet paper rolls in Puerto Rico as if they were basketballs during his first term. He has also received praise for the compassion he has shown crime victims, particularly so-called Angel Families who have been victims of illegal immigrant crime.
Trump’s briefing on Thursday slammed what had been a professional communications plan from the White House and his aides, including a first statement that he had been “fully briefed” and thanked the first responders for their “incredible work” but would continue to “monitor the situation.”
As new information about the impact broke out, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt even managed to book a spot on Fox News.
Leavitt addressed Sean Hannity,” This was not the intended topic of discussion for your program tonight.” ” But in light of this significant news, I have contacted my White House counterparts and can confirm that President Trump has been informed of this circumstance.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former congressman-turned-Fox News commentator who had been confirmed and sworn in earlier Wednesday, was at an early Thursday morning press conference with Washington, D. C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, in addition to Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), both Kansas Republicans, where the flight had originated.
Another newly confirmed political appointee and Fox News anchor, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, recorded a video update, in which he sported rolled-up sleeves, that same morning.
Hegseth and Duffy later accompanied Trump and Vice President JD Vance to the briefing, during which they, too, undercut DEI.
” When you don’t have the best standards in who you’re hiring, it means on the one hand, you’re not getting the best people in government”, Vance said. ” But on the other hand, it stresses out the populations who are already present.”
Hegseth added,” We will have the best and brightest in every position possible. … The era of DEI is gone”.
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Trump continued to sign an executive memorandum on Thursday afternoon, instructing Duffy and his new Federal Aviation Administration regulator, Christopher Rocheleau, to “review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols” since 2021.
According to the memo,” The Obama Administration instituted a biographical questionnaire at the FAA to shift the hiring focus away from objective aptitude.” According to the Biden Administration,” Memory-based hiring was flagrantly rejected, requiring all executive departments and organizations to use risky “diversity equity and inclusion” strategies, and in particular recruiting people with” severe intellectual” disabilities in the FAA.”
