No, Disabled People Having Jobs Didn't Cause a Plane Crash

But Trump’s policies might have.

For years, Republicans (led by Trump) have slammed anyone who dares to discuss gun laws after a mass shooting, shouting that it’s “not the time” to politicize tragedy. Thoughts and prayers only!! But the moment a plane crashes right in their backyard, suddenly it’s open season for making it all about politics. Somehow, in their warped logic, this tragic crash is the fault of Pete Buttigieg for being gay, disabled people for having jobs, and people of color for simply existing. This, despite the fact that nearly everyone involved, including the pilot, was whiter than a GOP donor brunch.

In a speech filled with the characteristic bluster of a man who has never taken responsibility for anything, Trump claimed that the plane crash was due to the FAA hiring people with “severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis.” The implication was clear: inclusivity had brought down the plane, not, you know, his own administration’s decisions, like gutting regulations, slashing safety oversight, and turning government agencies into a museum exhibit of Trump nepo babies.

This isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s a fragile little man’s tantrum disguised as a worldview. One that says marginalized people aren’t just a burden, but a threat, as if the biggest danger to America isn’t billionaires hoarding wealth or crumbling infrastructure, but a guy with a hearing aid doing his job. One that sees inclusion not as progress, but as some kind of existential crisis, because nothing screams "alpha male" like a grown man panicking at the idea of disabled people having office jobs.

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I don’t need to tell you this but let’s repeat it for the people in the back: disabled people already face staggering barriers to employment. In 2023, only 22.5% of disabled Americans were employed, compared to 65% of non-disabled people. When they do get hired, they are more likely to be paid less, more likely to be stuck in jobs that don’t accommodate them, more likely to be working under a patchwork of legal exemptions that allow disabled people to be paid below minimum wage. And yet, Trump wants you to believe that the problem is too much inclusion.

And that’s the thing about Trump. He has never been subtle in his disdain for disabled people. He doesn’t just think they shouldn’t have jobs, he has reportedly expressed that they shouldn’t exist at all. His own nephew, Fred Trump III, has said that when his child was born with cerebral palsy, Trump told him that disabled people should just die.

This is the same man who, in 2015, mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, a disabled journalist, flailing his arms in a grotesque imitation of Kovaleski’s joint condition. This is the same man whose administration rolled back disability rights, who made it harder for disabled people to access health care and federal assistance, who pushed for policies that would have stripped disability benefits from thousands of Americans. In his mind, disabled people are not workers, not citizens, not equals. They are an inconvenience. They are expendable.

So when Trump blames disabled workers for a plane crash, believe him. This is what he believes. He sees millions of Americans as fundamentally less worthy of life.

And yet, there he stands, rambling at a podium, answering questions like some loud, sweaty bystander, as if he’s just another guy with opinions and not the man who gutted government agencies, slashed jobs, and hollowed out the very systems designed to keep people safe. As if the chaos he created isn’t now crashing down, literally. Trump talks like a spectator, like someone else is the president and he’s just a guy commenting on the whole thing, because admitting he’s responsible would mean admitting he failed.

This is not a man. A man takes responsibility. A man keeps people safe. A man doesn’t throw the most vulnerable under the bus to cover for his own incompetence. Trump didn’t protect us, he failed, and now he’s blaming the people with the least power to hide the fact that he never had the strength to lead in the first place.