Trump Promises “Naturally Talented Geniuses” In Air Traffic Control, Rips Up Buttigieg For Setting Him Up

This is getting beyond embarrassing. Donald Trump faced the first bona fide crisis of his presidency, ten days into it, and he reacted like the idiot child that he is. We speak of the no survivors crash at Reagan National Airport Wednesday night which claimed 67 lives at present count.

This incident comes mere days after two dubious actions on the part of Trump: one, was sending out a memo to government workers offering a buyout (including air traffic controllers) and the second was his specious claim that he would restore “excellent and safety” at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Trump is manifestly incompetent to occupy the office he holds and so is his fellow TV talking head, Sean Duffy, the titular Secretary of Transportation. So what is happening now? Find scapegoats, that is what is happening now. Trump never blamed himself for COVID, as you recall, and he’s sure as hell not blaming himself for this.

He’s blaming Biden and Obama, Pete Buttigieg and most of all DEI. As you’ll see, Trump claims the three named politicians set him up by hiring people with disabilities, whereas the language in the FAA website was there during the entirety of Trump’s first term and he could have done something about it, if he objected to it, but did not.

The memorandum, titled “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation,” came on Trump’s second day in office. It highlighted the FAA’s crucial role in overseeing “safety for more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers,” adding that Americans “trust the FAA’s public servants with their lives, and it is therefore imperative that they maintain a commitment to excellence and efficiency.”

“During the prior administration, however, the FAA betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence,” Trump’s order said.

An accompanying White House fact sheet said Trump had signed a presidential memorandum that “ends DEI madness and restores excellence and safety” in the FAA.

It added that the action “orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring,” and requires the administrator to “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.”

“During the prior administration, however, the FAA betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence,” Trump’s order said.

An accompanying White House fact sheet said Trump had signed a presidential memorandum that “ends DEI madness and restores excellence and safety” in the FAA.

It added that the action “orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring,” and requires the administrator to “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.”

During a press conference about the crash, Trump directly blamed Buttigieg for the crash despite having no evidence whatsoever to back up such a claim.

“Maybe this is the reason the FAA, which is overseen by secretary Pete Buttigieg, a real winner,” Trump said. “That’s the guy’s a real winner. Do you know how badly everything’s run since he’s run? The Department of Transportation? 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 b——. The Department of Transportation, his government agency charged with regulating civil aviation while he runs it, 45,000 people, and he’s run it right into the ground with his diversity, so I had to say that it’s terrible.”

Buttigieg came out swinging at Trump immediately after the president’s rant and pointed out that Trump in his first week in office pushed out several aviation safety officials.

“Despicable,” he wrote in response on X. “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. 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.”

Trump accusing anybody of “having a line of bullshit” is really something. This is an oh my God, I’m gonna faint moment. But it gets much worse. Let’s get on to Trump’s solution, the “naturally talented geniuses.” Don’t want to miss that.

This is the dogma for the next four years, write it down:

1. Everything is Biden and or Obama’s fault;
2. DEI is the new boogeyman;
3. Immigrants are the other boogeyman;
4. One out of the four will always, and reliably, be blamed (along with a supporting cast) for every single eff up that happens on Trump’s watch.

And of course the rest of the world is watching this and either laughing or shaking their heads because, of course, they have to do business with us. Until they don’t. America may be a very different place in four years, after this unspeakable asshole is done taking a wrecking ball to it.