Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Donald Trump of being too incompetent to lead the country because he suggested the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) prioritization of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) played a role in the tragic Washington, D.C., aircraft collision on Wednesday.
“We face the unfortunate reality that we must be honest with the nation about: Donald Trump is unfit to lead during moments of crisis like this,” Pritzker said in a statement Thursday night.
The blue state governor, whom Trump evoked on the campaign trail as an example of the downfall of Democrat-run states, urged the Trump administration to respond to the American Airlines crash with “information and facts to instill confidence in our nation’s aviation safety.”
“Before victims have even been identified, Trump is blaming people with disabilities,” Pritzker said, referring to FAA DEI hiring practices. “He’s blaming the U.S. service members in the Blackhawk helicopter. He’s blaming hiring programs he can’t even name or offer examples of. The buck stops with him — yet he is failing to demonstrate his role as protector of the American people and head of our government.”
TRUMP ATTACKS DEI POLICIES AFTER DC PLANE CRASH, SAYS FAA EMPLOYEES MUST BE HELD TO ‘HIGHEST STANDARDS’
President Joe Biden, right, is greeted by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker upon arrival at Soldier Field Landing Zone on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. (Reuters/Craig Hudson)
The second-term governor is among the long list of Democrats considering a 2028 presidential run. Pritzker has seized opportunities over the past two weeks to play a leadership role in Democrat opposition to Trump, refusing, for example, to follow Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
PRITZKER BASHES TRUMP ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: ‘WE WILL NOT FOLLOW AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ORDER’
Pritzker’s comments Thursday were the latest in a long-standing feud between the two.
“Sloppy J.B. Pritzker… has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois at levels never seen before in any State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. “Crime is rampant and people are, sadly, fleeing Illinois. Unless a change is made at the Governor’s level, Illinois can never be Great Again!”
Trump’s attacks have veered into the ad hominem, labeling Pritzker a “rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model.”
In his statement, Pritzker demanded the Trump administration answer his “critical questions,” including why the control tower was not fully staffed during the crash; why the Trump administration fired members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee; whether the president now understands fully staffing federal agencies is a “matter of life and death”; and whether he plans to reverse federal workforce cuts.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, right, slammed President Donald Trump’s leadership following the American Airlines crash. (AP/Getty)
Pritzker questioned whether Elon Musk played a role in the removal of the former FAA director; why a replacement for FAA director was not named until after the crash; whether the federal government authorized the Blackhawk helicopter to fly on a commercial flight path; and if the government will continue allowing helicopters to fly at the same altitude as commercial planes.
“Will the President, Vice President, Defense Secretary, and Transportation Secretary cooperate with the independent NTSB investigation and correct any misinformation they spread about the crash?” Pritzker demanded to know.
Trump on Thursday listed headlines about Biden-era FAA DEI hiring that he suggested weakened the agency.
“Here’s one,” Trump said in the White House briefing room. “The FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says the FAA says people with severe disabilities, the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in. They can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“This was on January 14th, so that was a week before I entered office,” Trump said, seeking to push blame onto the Biden administration. “They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program.“
Trump then expanded his list of conditions allowed among controllers: “Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability, and dwarfism.”
The president drew a stark contrast between Democratic policies and his own first-week executive orders that halted DEI programs in the federal government and restored “the highest standards of air traffic controllers.”
“Brilliant people have to be in those positions,” he stated.
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When asked how he came to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash, the president said, “Because I have common sense.”
Pritzker is not the only potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender who took issue with Trump’s comments. After Trump called former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a “disaster,” Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic primary candidate, called Trump’s comments “despicable.”
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he wrote on X. “We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe.”
