While multiple investigations into the Washington, D.C., plane crash have only just begun, President Donald Trump raised possible causes for the collision, without citing evidence, including what he described as lowered hiring standards at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Trump told reporters the federal agency's pursuit of "diversity" hires led to an increase in non-white employees and workers with disabilities, some of whom Trump said are unqualified to be air traffic controllers.
They have to be talented -- naturally, talented geniuses.
Trump speaking about the need to increase hiring standards for air traffic control workers at the FAA
"You have to go by brain power," Trump told reporters. "It doesn't matter what they look like, how they speak. What matters: intellect, talent. The word talent. They have to be talented -- naturally, talented geniuses."
During Thursday's news conference, Vice President JD Vance and two of Trump's newly-installed cabinet members, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, echoed Trump's pushback against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the federal government.
"I think that the president's words today were a baseless attack," said Jess Davidson of the American Association of People with Disabilities. "It is a huge inaccurate sweeping generalization that is rooted in ableism and is rooted in a desire to no longer see disabled people serving in his government."
Politics
While Trump blamed former President Joe Biden for prioritizing diversity in the FAA's hiring practices, the agency's website has touted its commitment to diversity for more than a decade, including during Trump's first term in office.
In examining the nation's more than 40,000 air traffic controllers and airfield operations workers, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found the number of white employees stayed largely the same during Trump's first term as president, remaining at about 79% of the workforce. The division started to get more diverse and less white during the first two years of the Biden administration, with the white population dropping to 73% in 2022, according to Data USA, a website created in part by the MIT Media Lab. Figures for the remainder of Biden's term are not yet available.
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The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit was unable to locate trend data regarding workers with disabilities, however, it did identity figures for people with disabilities across the entire federal government. The number of workers with a disability increased from 8.7% in fiscal year 2016 to 10.5% in fiscal year 2021 -- a spike spanning Trump's first term in the White House that ran from 2017 to 2021.
[Trump's] comments were deeply hurtful and deeply scary for disabled people.
Jess Davidson, a spokesperson for The American Association of People with Disabilities
"We are a population that has seen our community be demonized so that others can push a political agenda," Davidson said. "[Trump's] comments were deeply hurtful and deeply scary for disabled people."
Disability advocates are quick to note the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a federal law dating back more than 50 years, requires the government to take "affirmative steps to hire, retain and promote people with disabilities."
"These are programs to hire disabled workers who are skilled and who can carry out the job into federal roles to increase opportunity," Davidson said. "The president can't wish those away."
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