Americans were horrified this week when an American Airlines plane collided with an Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport.

The tragedy came one day before President Donald Trump said that his administration will terminate diversity initiatives in airline safety and instead focus on "competence." 

Trump issues memos relating to aviation

According to The Hill, Trump signed a memorandum on Thursday to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) relating to aviation.

The document also instructs Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Federal Aviation Administration Christopher Rocheleau to review and potentially eliminate policies and procedures imposed during the Biden administration.

This move came in the wake of an earlier memo last week which asserted that the FAA "betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence" with "illegal and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring."

The memo further banned hiring "on the basis of race, sex, disability, or any other criteria other than the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence, competency, and qualification."

Attorney: "Politics has no place in aviation safety"

"For example, prior to my Inauguration, the FAA Diversity and Inclusion website revealed that the prior administration sought to specifically recruit and hire individuals with serious infirmities that could impact the execution of their essential life-saving duties," Trump wrote.

Newsweek pointed out that Trump's new direction on DEI has been welcomed by aviation attorney Erin Applebaum. She told the publication, "Politics has no place in aviation safety because there is no margin for error when lives are at stake."

"The Trump FAA must ensure that the best professionals are brought into the FAA while at the same time ensuring that all employment processes are free from unlawful discrimination," Applebaum declared.

"The FAA's most important priorities are the advancement of aviation safety and the prevention of air disasters," the attorney went on to state.

Trump unsure if DEI played a role in deadly crash

Meanwhile, The Hill reported that Trump said at a press conference on Thursday that DEI policies could have been a factor in this week's deadly crash, saying, "It may have, I don’t know."

President Trump takes executive action on aviation DEI, appointing FAA lead in wake of DCA crash https://t.co/tL9WXmgjf0

— The Hill (@thehill) January 30, 2025

"We want the most competent people, no matter what race they are," the president said of his philosophy when it comes to staffing.

"If they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do," Trump maintained.