Wait, What? Trump Blames DEI for DC Plane Crash
At Around 9 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 29) night, an U.S. army helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane carrying 64 people, according to CBS News. Footage of the crash shows the Black Hawk helicopter flying directly into the plane, but the exact cause of the crash is still being investigated.
But don't fret! It seems like the president knows the real cause of the crash. During a press conference, he flat out blamed DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and the Biden Administration for the disaster. 'We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas, and I think we'll probably state those opinions now,' the president began.
'The FAA is actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative,' he said. And because of it, Trump claimed DEI caused a lowering of standards for FAA employees, leading to last night's crash.
'We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,' he continued. 'Only the highest aptitude – you have to be the highest intellect – and psychologically superior people, were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers.'
In response to Trump's theories, several have spoken out and called his claims baseless. Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett tweeted 'While emergency responders are still recovering peoples' loved ones from the freezing water, Trump is using these families' pain for POLITICS by blaming their deaths on DEI.'
She continued calling this 'a total failure of leadership.' Trump's nominee for Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, was sworn into his position on Tuesday (Jan. 28), according to AP News.
During the press conference, Trump defended Duffy saying 'Our new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy — his second day on the job when that happened. That's a rough one.' He continued with 'Great gentleman. Just started. It's not your fault.'
Others on X responded to Trump blaming DEI in confusion. User @esjesjesj noted how Trump has already banned DEI in the government. 'Trump and Elon have been gutting the FAA and have already said they ended DEI but now that they caused a plane crash they're back to blaming black and gay people,' they wrote.
Another user, encouraged the president to wait until the investigation unfolds more before jumping to insane conclusions. 'He [Trump] always sounds like the kid doing a book report that didn't read the book and just bsing through it,' @NateKosak wrote.
Among the victims are participants of the US Figure Skating Championship and three military officials, according to The Independent, making it the deadliest American plane crash in over two decades.
Authorities have since announced they've switched from a rescue operation to a recovery operation as they don't believe there are any survivors. So far, 27 bodies have been recovered, according to CBS.
For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
a few seconds ago
- New York Times
Trump Says He's Ended 6 (or 7) Wars. Here's Some Context.
President Trump often says that he has resolved multiple wars since taking office in January and that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. 'I'm averaging about a war a month,' Mr. Trump said in July in Turnberry, Scotland. On Monday at the White House, during talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine aimed at moving toward a peace deal with Russia, he referred to 'six wars that I've settled.' On Tuesday, in an interview on 'Fox and Friends,' he said he had ended seven wars, though he did not specify which one he had added. 'I really want to get to heaven,' Mr. Trump said in the interview, explaining his motivation for playing peacemaker, though he joked that he knew he was 'on the bottom of the totem pole.' Every U.S. president has world conflicts land on his desk, and Mr. Trump has used the power of his office, including the threat of economic penalties, to intervene in several this year, leading to an end to fighting. In some cases, warring parties have credited him with advancing peace or calming hostilities. In others, his role is disputed or less clear — or fighting goes on. Asked for clarification, the White House provided a list of the six wars he says he has resolved. It did not respond to a subsequent question about the seventh. Armenia and Azerbaijan Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
a few seconds ago
- CBS News
U.S. broadens search for deportation agreements, striking deals with Honduras and Uganda, documents show
Internal government documents obtained by CBS News show the Trump administration has expanded its campaign to persuade countries around the world to aid its crackdown on illegal immigration by accepting deportations of migrants who are not their own citizens. The documents indicate Uganda in East Africa recently agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. who hail from other countries on the continent, as long as they don't have criminal histories. It's unclear how many deportees Uganda would ultimately accept under the arrangement with the U.S. government. Honduras' government has also agreed to receive deportees from other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, including families traveling with children, the documents show. The government of Honduras agreed to a relatively small number of deportations — just several hundred over two years — but the documents indicate it could decide to accept more. Both agreements are based on a "safe third country" provision of U.S. immigration law that allows officials to reroute asylum-seekers to countries that are not their own if the U.S. government makes a determination that those nations can fairly hear their claims for humanitarian protection. The two bilateral deals outlined in the internal documents are part of a large-scale diplomatic effort that President Trump's administration has staged to strike deportation arrangements with nations across several continents, including those with problematic human rights records. The administration has argued those agreements are key to its mass deportation campaign, since there are some migrants who can't easily be deported to their home countries because of strained diplomatic relations or other reasons. At least a dozen countries have already accepted or agreed to accept deportees from other nations since the second Trump administration took office, and U.S. officials have been aggressively courting other governments. Internal government documents show the Trump administration has also asked countries like Ecuador and Spain to receive these so-called third country deportees from the U.S. Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests to comment on CBS News' reporting. A senior State Department official said, "We don't comment on the content of private diplomatic negotiations, but the State Department is doing everything possible to support the President's policy of keeping Americans safe by removing illegal aliens who have no right to be in the United States." Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to deport migrants to third countries with a minimal degree of notice and due process. The decision paved the way for the administration to continue expanding a practice it has relied on since the beginning of Mr. Trump's second term. In February, the Trump administration convinced Costa Rica and Panama to take in several hundred African and Asian migrants who had claimed asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border. Then, in March, the U.S. flew more than 200 Venezuelans accused of gang membership to El Salvador, where they were held incommunicado for months at a notorious prison until they were returned to Venezuela last month under a prisoner swap. The administration has also sent immigrants convicted of violent crimes and who hail from Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Laos, Myanmar, Yemen and other countries to violence-torn South Sudan and the tiny southern African kingdom of Eswatini. Guatemala, Kosovo and Rwanda have announced they will receive deportees from the U.S. who come from other nations. Last week, the State Department said the U.S. had signed a "safe third country" asylum agreement with Paraguay. Mexico, under an arrangement that predates Mr. Trump's second term, accepts the return of some Latin American migrants who crossed the U.S. southern border illegally. Human rights advocates have strongly denounced the Trump administration effort, saying migrants could be deported to countries where they could be harmed or returned to the place they fled. Some of the countries persuaded to sign deportation agreements have been plagued by reports of human rights abuses. In a report released last week, the State Department described "negative developments in the human rights situation in Uganda," citing unlawful killings, "arbitrary" arrests, disappearances and a lack of action from the government to curb human rights abuses. The report also noted, however, that Uganda has worked with United Nations officials to provide humanitarian protection to refugees. Doris Meissner, who oversaw the now-defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service under the Clinton administration, said the U.S. government has long faced difficulties deporting some migrants due to diplomatic constraints. But she noted efforts to deport them to third countries were generally undertaken in "exceptional" cases only. Meissner suggested the Trump administration may be employing different sources of leverage — like threats of visa sanctions and funding commitments — to persuade as many countries as possible to take in deportees from other nations. Noting deportations to third countries remain relatively limited in scale, Meissner said a main driver behind the Trump administration's diplomatic efforts is a desire to send a message of deterrence to those in the U.S. illegally, one that highlights the possibility that they could be sent to distant countries where they have no ties. "The broader reason beyond that is fear and intimidation and ultimately, incentivizing self deportation," she said.
Forbes
a few seconds ago
- Forbes
Electricity Prices Are Rising Thanks To Tariffs, Clean Energy Cuts, AI
Electricity bills have increased almost 10% since the start of the year and could rise another $170 per year for households by 2035 thanks to the repeal of clean energy tax credits, new tariffs and rapid expansion of electricity-hungry data centers to fuel a boom in artificial intelligence, multiple reports have shown. Electricity transmission towers. Getty Images Residential electricity bills have increased by almost 10% since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term as president, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, rising from 15.95 cents per kilowatthour in January to 17.47 cents in May, the latest data available. The cost of electricity has risen 5.5% over the last 12 months, according to the latest consumer price index data, almost twice as much as the overall cost of living (up 2.7%). Trump has repeatedly promised to lower utility bills, but multiple reports released this summer blame his moves imposing new tariffs, cutting clean energy sources and supporting the expansion of data centers as reasons for the spikes in price. Climate think tank Energy Innovation estimates energy provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4, will increase wholesale electricity prices by 74% over the next 10 years, leading to a household energy cost increase of $170 annually by 2035. Tariffs on steel, aluminum and their derivatives stand to increase the cost of construction and maintenance on transmission lines, substations and power plants, likely to be passed onto customers over time, and energy imports from Canada and Mexico are also subject to tariffs. Trump's support of AI—he has vowed the U.S. will become 'the world capital of artificial intelligence and crypto'—is also fueling the rise of power-hungry data centers, sending the demand for electricity (and its price) soaring. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts : We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here . The EIA projects data centers and other commercial users will surpass residential customers in use of electricity for the first time next year. The bill Trump signed in July stripped away federal support for cheap solar and wind energy production and moved to expand domestic fossil fuel production. The bill phases out tax credits for solar and wind, often now cheaper than gas or coal, and forces utilities to rely more heavily on existing, expensive and nonrenewable power sources. The bill is in line with Trump's stated goals—to use oil, gas, coal and nuclear power to meet the country's growing energy needs—and includes moves like opening up federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling and slashing royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on those lands. Trump has long blasted solar and wind warms, for their visible footprints, the requirement of more land than nuclear, natural gas or coal and their vulnerability to natural disasters, calling wind farms 'unsightly' and 'garbage.' Crucial Quote 'I don't want windmills destroying our place,' Trump said in June. 'I don't want these solar things where they go for miles and they cover up a half a mountain that are ugly as hell.' Big Number 13,939. That's how many megawatts of planned energy generation, enough to power 8.4 million homes, have been lost due to energy projects that were canceled or delayed since Trump's election, according to a new report from advocacy group Climate Power. Contra Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Politico in an interview published Tuesday that cuts to solar and wind power projects are not causing electricity costs to spike. He said he knows electricity prices are rising, but blamed Obama-Biden policies that resulted in taxpayer money flowing into clean energy projects: "And who's going to get blamed for it? We're going to get blamed because we're in office.' Forbes Trump: Wind And Solar Are 'A Blight On Our Country' By David Blackmon Forbes Trump's Energy Agenda And Its Impact On Clean Technology And Workers By Ken Silverstein Forbes The Cost Of Trump's Tax Plan: Sapping Clean Energy And 790,000 Jobs By Ken Silverstein Forbes How Trump's Energy Secretary Built A $100 Million Fortune By Lily Ogburn
