Common sense? More like a lack of common decency as Trump stoops to new low

Washington: It’s easy, probably inevitable, to become inured to Donald Trump’s meandering and often outrageous verbiage. He speaks so much, with such little regard for customs or social norms, that one can’t help shrugging a lot of it off. There he goes again.

But when the president of the United States hijacks a tragedy – not just a plane crash, but America’s worst in nearly 25 years – to push his political agenda, traduce his enemies and demonise minorities, it’s important to stop and remember this is not normal. Nor is it OK.

President Donald Trump suggested that efforts to boost diversity was the cause of the crash.Credit: AP

Trump began by recognising this was “an hour of anguish for our nation”: a military helicopter and a passenger plane had collided in the air near Washington’s closest airport, killing all 64 people on the jet and three in the chopper. “We are in mourning,” he said, noting the incident had “shaken a lot of people”.

It can be of no comfort to those people – the friends and family, the colleagues, the figure skating club teammates and coaches – that Trump quickly segued into blaming diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices for the crash, despite knowing nothing for certain about its cause.

“Because I have common sense,” Trump replied when asked how he could be so sure DEI played a role. “And unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”

Trump insinuated DEI practices were to blame for the crash that killed 67 people in the US capital.Credit: AP

One thing we can be sure the US president does not have is common decency. While the bodies were still being pulled out of the Potomac River, he was on national television speculating about what happened and using it to justify his ongoing war on DEI and affirmative action.

Trump had clearly been briefed on the mechanics of the crash, and he explained, as had others, that it appeared the helicopter crossed the passenger plane’s path on final approach. He also referred to air traffic control audio that showed the tower asking the chopper whether it had the jet in sight seconds before the crash.

But he had not been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Bureau, the investigating agency. It was all pure speculation. “We don’t know,” Trump admitted. His insinuation was crystal clear, though: underqualified people were at the controls, put there by the Democrats because they were black or queer or differently abled.

In addition to blaming predecessors Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Trump also ranted about former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling him “a disaster” who had run the Federal Aviation Administration into the ground with diversity policies.

Former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg.Credit: Bloomberg

Indeed, Trump and his team leant into it, later inviting media to watch him sign a presidential memorandum to review all hiring decisions and safety protocols in the FAA over the past four years, and replace “any individuals who do not meet qualification standards”.

Trump’s anti-DEI war is cloaked in the language of merit and competence; the US should be a meritocracy, he says, especially when it comes to aviation safety, where only the best will do. There’s a valid debate to be had about corporate and government DEI practices, and thanks to the president’s election victory and subsequent decisions, that debate is very much being had – globally.

So there is no need for him to hijack and politicise this tragedy to double down on his agenda. Buttigieg shied away from reacting to Trump’s personal jibes but rightly described his broader comments as “despicable”. British historian Simon Schama called them “nauseating”.

“It’s difficult to find words adequate to the moral abyss from which such a response at such a time could possibly come,” Schama wrote on X. “No one resembling an actual human being could do this and say this.”

Congress members called it disgusting and racist.

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is notoriously congested airspace surrounded by numerous military bases. There were at least two close calls at that airport last year – the same year Congress approved additional flights at the airport, despite objections from people such as Virginia senator Tim Kaine, who have sounded the alarm about this for some time.

Moreover, understaffing is a major issue at air traffic control towers across the US, and there are now reports that may have been an issue at Reagan on the night.

Rampant public insinuation by no less than the president should thoroughly irk the NTSB, the world’s leading air crash investigation unit. At a press conference, its chair Jennifer Homendy said she briefed Trump in the afternoon – after his morning diatribe.

But when asked about all this, Homendy seemed resigned. The NTSB was used to speculation about crashes, she said – usually from the media.

Which goes to show the danger of normalising some of Trump’s behaviour. It’s not just some dude on the internet or a TV panelist pontificating about possible causes, it’s the president of the United States behind a podium in the White House.

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