For weeks, politicians and pundits have engaged in a ghoulish effort to blame every plane accident on the Trump Administration, even accidents that occurred within the first weeks of the Trump Administration. Hillary Clinton led the effort by bizarrely suggesting that the collision of the airliner and the helicopter over the Potomac was due to the changes in Trump’s policies. The spin showed utter contempt for the intelligence of the public since there was no evidence that the Trump Administration policies had any impact on the accidents.
Nevertheless, the press and pundits fueled the false narrative by citing various accidents in January. That narrative then collapsed after CNN and other media outlets acknowledged that there were actually fewer accidents in January than average and that the Biden Administration saw more accidents during the same period.
The attempt to use these tragedies for raw political advantage is appalling. However, it also shows the complete disregard for the intelligence of voters in suggesting the nexus between the change of Administration and airplane accidents shortly after the inauguration.
It does not matter that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was not confirmed until January 28, 2025, less than 24 hours before the accident over the Potomac.
Nevertheless, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others immediately weaponized that and later tragedies.
Schumer was joined by media figures like former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who later was compelled to delete a tweet on Sunday, Feb. 16 in which he wrote “Make American Plane Crash Again.” Like others, Hasan was connecting a small plane crash in Georgia to the start of the Trump Administration.
Then there was Rep. Eric Swalwell. We have previously discussed the bottomless pit of Swalwellian logic, such as shutting down the government to prevent government shutdowns.
The logic tree was felled again by Swalwell in blaming the Trump Administration for the crash in Georgia: “Trump is President. President Trump is in charge of air safety. All crashes are Trump’s fault.”
The only problem, as pointed out by CNN, is that air travel overall was better in January than prior such periods:
“In fact, if the preliminary numbers hold, January 2025 will surpass the previous record for the lowest number of total accidents, with eight fewer than the prior record low of 70 from January 2012.”
Does that mean that all aircraft safety like aircraft accidents are attributed to Trump? Of course not. Not only have no changes been made that have impacted the air traffic controllers in these cases, but none of the proposals would reduce those controllers.
The most bizarre was the effort to blame Trump for an accident where a plane flipped over in Canada.
On NBC, Tom Costello observed “as you know there has been talk about maybe staff cuts at the FAA as a part of President Trump’s effort to trim down the federal workforce.”
This is becoming a policy version of Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon. Every airport accident can be traced within six degrees of DOGE or Duffy.
It is very easy. Just take any airline mishap anywhere in the world and then trace it back to the United States and Sean Duffy. For example, there was also a water main break at the airport at Fort McMurray International Airport in Alberta. Ready? Go…
If you are struggling, just watch Schumer who is the most nimble at this game.
“I’m thankful that everyone in the flight incident in Toronto that took off from Minneapolis is safe, but we keep seeing these incidents day after day. Meanwhile, Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA – including safety specialists – and making our skies less and less safe…Democrats are fighting to protect the flying public…To those asking whether it matters that the plane’s destination was in Canada: The flight took off from Minneapolis. The FAA was still responsible for inspecting the aviation equipment, and Trump just let go of FAA safety specialists.”
Done. Six degrees to Duffy.