Thursday saw President Donald Trump hold a press conference in which he addressed this week's horrific plane crash near Reagan National Airport.

During the event, Trump slammed a member of President Joe Biden's cabinet for having run the Department of Transportation "right into the ground with his diversity."

Trump calls Pete Buttigieg "a disaster"

According to Breitbart, Trump accused former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives over safety.

"Do you know how badly everything’s run since he’s run the Department of Transportation? He’s a disaster," Trump was quoted as telling reporters.

President Trump is right. The FAA shouldn’t be hiring and recruiting individuals with disabilities. Biden and Buttigieg’s DEI initiatives must be rooted out. pic.twitter.com/LZE1ePUEgs

— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) January 30, 2025

"He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground, and he’s a disaster now. He's just got a good line of bulls--t," the president continued.

FAA sought to hire those with "severe intellectual" and "psychiatric" disabilities

Breitbart noted how Trump went on to cite a Fox News report from earlier this month whose headline read, "FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with 'severe intellectual' and 'psychiatric' disabilities."

He then pointed to the report's subheading, which stated, "FAA says people with 'severe' disabilities are most underrepresented segment of federal workforce."

"This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program," the president alleged.

What's more, Trump also suggested that the previous administration's focus on DEI may have played a role in this week's fatal crash, remarking, "It may have, I don’t know."

"We want the most competent people, no matter what race they are," Trump declared. "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."

Memo limits hiring criteria to "excellence, competency, and qualification"

Meanwhile, The Hill reported that Trump signed a memo that asserted that the Federal Aviation Administration had "betrayed its mission by elevating dangerous discrimination over excellence" with "illegal and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring."

The president's memo also imposed new rules regarding staffing policies at the FAA and Department of Transportation.

Specifically, it 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."