Editor, Times-Union:
While scores of horrified, broken-hearted families and friends of crash victims were just beginning to mourn the losses of loved ones still being recovered from the icy waters of the Potomac River, America’s president, true to form, placed himself in the spotlight. In a White House press conference, not 24 hours after the horrific mid-air crash, and after offering a few words of condolence, Donald Trump offered his unsolicited, unwarranted explanation of not only how the crash happened, but also his theory of why it happened. He blamed the helicopter pilots, the commercial jet pilots, and the air traffic controllers. Ultimately, he blamed former Presidents OBama and Biden for their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hiring program (DEI, a program guaranteeing every qualified person is given a fair shot at success regardless of race, color, gender, etc.). To Donald Trump this program means anyone who is white, male, or loyal to him is discriminated against.
During Donald Trump’s rant, he even managed to belittle reporters — here we go again — who dared to ask him to explain his accusations and fabricated explanations. His response: “Because I have common sense, and, unfortunately a lot of people don’t.” Finally, his deplorable response to reporters about his plans to visit the crash site: “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”
Donald Trump seems to have forgotten that during his first term he deregulated and gutted the air safety industry thus placing oversight into airlines’ hands so they could increase profits. Note: Since then airliner doors have flown off, wheels have fallen off, and engines have caught fire. Now in the first three days of his second term, Donald Trump’s little helper, Elon Musk, managed to pressure the FAA director to resign four years early because he dared to fine Musk for safety violations in his little space project. Also, in his first three days, Donald Trump declared a hiring freeze on air traffic controllers, he disbanded the entire aviation safety advisory committee, and he fired nearly 100 top FAA security officers as well as the head of the Transportation Security Administration. Any accountability here?
With hatred and malevolence, Donald Trump, on his first day, ordered the dismantling of all federal DEI programs and the eventual laying off of staff running these programs. It seems he is planning to create his own DEI hiring program and all new hires must be modeled after him: Despicable, Evil, and Incompetent.
Jeanne Tuka Schutz
Winona Lake, via email