President Donald Trump has strong opinions, strong confidence in his decisions and often uses strong language.
All of which can be good traits for a leader. Assertiveness and assurances, particularly in times of crisis or disaster, can help the public feel that someone is taking charge and will make things better. Nations need leaders who can bring people together in times of sadness.
Such as the day after a deadly crash between a passenger jet and a military helicopter at Washington National Airport last week. Trump started his press conference by calling for a moment of silence and prayer for the victims of the Jan. 29 tragedy. He led a country sharing its grief. He called it “an hour of anguish for our nation.”
Then he launched into what he does so well: Assign blame, this time to Democrats, former president Joe Biden and even the helicopter crew and air traffic controllers.
The president asserted, without proof, that the Federal Aviation Administration, which operates the nation’s air traffic control system, had weakened its standards under Biden, paying too much attention to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.
Trump told a grieving nation that the FAA was “actively recruiting workers who suffer severe intellectual disabilities and psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under diversity and inclusion hiring initiatives.”
A reporter asked the president how he knew that the crash was related to DEI initiatives. “Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t,” he answered.
Later that same day, Trump again decided he was not only commander in chief but now was also an aircraft accident investigator. “Incompetence might have played a role,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Giving his opinion before investigators had finished interviewing witnesses and people involved in the tragedy, or recovered all of the pieces of aircraft wreckage and the victims, or found the data recorders from the two aircraft — much less analyzed them — Trump was full of opinions.
The president blamed “very late” warnings from air traffic control, though he wasn’t sure if the controllers were the cause of the crash, and said the helicopter pilots “should have seen where they were going” and were flying at the wrong altitude.
Later that same day, he issued a presidential memorandum directing a review of the government’s aviation policies, noting “the damage done” to safety under the Biden administration. His administration would be “elevating competence over everything else, instead of the DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration,” Trump said. “And Obama, yes. But Biden, much worse.”
Thankfully, rather than try to mimic the president’s instant analysis and blame game, some lawmakers were more respectful of the dead and the investigation into the accident.
“Let’s have a little bit of reverence today,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican. “They’re still recovering bodies, and then we can go with the political ramifications of that question, if we choose to.”
The best advice came from Michigan Republican Rep. Jack Bergman, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general who has flown helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and is a former commercial pilot who landed dozens of flights at the Washington airport.
“If you don’t know what you’re talking about, keep your mouth shut,” Bergman said.
Maybe no one ever gave that advice to Trump.
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