FAA Hiring Policy Lambasted by Trump After DC Plane Crash Existed During His 1st Term

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

44% : The claims went viral that first time thanks in large part to a January 2024 post on X by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who in 2025 was leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency: Outside of misrepresenting the nature of the program, the problem with suggesting that this FAA hiring initiative was a plausible explanation for disastrous events is that the program is more than a decade old and existed during the entirety of Trump's first presidency.
42% : Trump was apparently referring to a headline published by Fox News and the New York Post on Jan. 14, 2024 -- not the week before his inauguration -- that suggested this same initiative could have been responsible for an incident in which an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 lost a plug door midflight: The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer "severe intellectual" disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency's website.
27% : There is no evidence the program referenced by Trump contributed to either the Alaska Airlines incident or the Army helicopter-passenger plane collision in D.C., the latter of which remains under active investigation.
22% : Trump implied that a long-standing FAA policy could be to blame for the deadly collision between an Army helicopter and a passenger airplane.

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