Elon Musk backs Trump’s FAA changes, calls Biden-era hiring “insane”

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Billionaire Elon Musk has expressed support for President Donald Trump’s plans to review hiring decisions made by the Federal Aviation Administration, calling the Biden administration’s hiring practices “insane” after a plane crash in Washington, D.C.

Newsweek contacted Trump’s spokesperson and Musk via the press office for X, formerly Twitter, for comment by email.

Why It Matters

On Wednesday, a plane carrying 60 passengers and four crew members had a midair collision with a Black Hawk Army helicopter. The flight had taken off from Wichita, Kansas, and was approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport when it collided with the Sikorsky H-60 helicopter, which was on a training flight with a crew of three based in Virginia’s Fort Belvoir.

Officials reported on Thursday that all 67 people involved were dead, and an investigation into the crash is ongoing.

Upon his return to office, Trump pushed to remove all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives from federal programs, and during a news conference on Thursday, he suggested diversity hiring programs were to blame for the collision. He did not provide evidence to support his claims.

What To Know

On Thursday, Musk wrote on X: “Under the Biden administration, the FAA and other government agencies had absolutely insane hiring practices that endangered the public. President @realDonaldTrump and his team are working rapidly to restore competent personnel to all positions involving your safety.”

Musk’s post also included screenshots from a New York Post article about an FAA program to hire people with disabilities.

In Thursday’s press conference, Trump read from a January 2024 Fox News article, which he mistakenly said was from this month, about an FAA program to recruit people with “severe” disabilities.

Trump said his standards were the “complete opposite” of what President Joe Biden’s administration had in place and pointed to DEI efforts as a potential reason for the crash.

Despite the president’s criticism, the FAA launched a similar initiative to hire people with disabilities during his first term.

Billionaire Elon Musk at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images/Getty Images

Trump’s Memo

In a White House memo issued on Thursday, Trump again blamed the previous Democratic administrations for the crash, writing: “This shocking event follows problematic and likely illegal decisions during the Obama and Biden Administrations that minimized merit and competence in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).”

Later in the memo, the president ordered the secretary of transportation and the administrator of the FAA “to review all hiring decisions and changes to safety protocols made during the prior 4 years, and to take such corrective action as necessary to achieve uncompromised aviation safety, including the replacement of any individuals who do not meet qualification standards.”

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump said during Thursday’s press conference: “We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. What matters is intellect, talent. The word talent—they have to be talented, naturally talented, geniuses. Brilliant people have to be in those positions [air traffic controllers], and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened, because of the stress, where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it.”

The FAA said in a statement: “FAA investigators are supporting the NTSB-led investigation of Wednesday night’s midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport. The NTSB is leading the investigation and will provide all updates. We cannot comment on any aspect of open investigations. The FAA will quickly take any actions necessary based on evidence from the investigation.”

American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in a video statement: “This is a difficult day for all of us at American Airlines, and our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of our passengers, crew members, partners, first responders, along with their families and loved ones. We understand and appreciate the people are eager for information, please know that we will continue to share accurate and timely information as soon as we can, but anything we must report, must be accurate.”

What Happens Next

The investigation into the crash continues. The National Transportation Safety Board has said it has not located flight data recorders, or black boxes, from the passenger airplane or military helicopter involved in Wednesday’s crash.

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