Failed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg expressed outrage after President Trump eviscerated him during Thursday morning’s press briefing on the tragic Washington, D.C., plane crash over the Potomac River.
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As readers are well aware at this point, an American Airlines regional jet carrying 64 people collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport late Wednesday night. As of the latest reports, 28 bodies have been recovered from the crash site, with no survivors expected.
Trump began the press conference with a moment of silence followed by remarks consoling the nation as they process and grieve over the news.
“This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions,” he announced. “As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly.”
“On behalf of the First Lady, myself, and 340 million Americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours. And our prayers are with you now and in the days to come.”
It wasn’t long, however, before the president pointed out the disastrous previous leadership at the Department of Transportation.
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Trump thoroughly dismantled Buttigieg’s tenure at the DOT on a national stage without regard for anybody’s personal feelings. The former Transportation Secretary is a legitimate target of criticism, especially when you consider the numerous near-miss aviation disasters that took place during his time in that role.
“The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg – That guy’s a real winner,” President Trump said.
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“Do you know how badly everything’s run since he’s run the Department of Transportation?” he asked. “He’s a disaster. 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.”
“He’s run it right into the ground with his diversity.”
President Trump on former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “A real winner. Do you know how badly everything has run since he’s run the Department of Transportation. He’s a disaster…he’s just got a good line of bullshit.” pic.twitter.com/TTYrtmFRRU
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 30, 2025
Buttigieg fired back hard on X, calling Trump’s remarks “despicable.”
He wrote:
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. 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.”
He then opted to forgo the moral high ground by blaming Trump in return for the air disaster.
“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,” he said. “Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again.”
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Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. 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…— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) January 30, 2025
It’s rich to see the man who was Transportation Secretary for four years suggest that the president who has been in office for just nine days is more responsible for chaos at the FAA than he is. Not to mention, he then criticized the fact that one of Trump’s first moves was to root out the incompetence left behind by Buttigieg’s hiring practices.
He’s cleaning up your mess, fella.
And let’s take a look at those “close calls,” which Paternity Pete bragged about lowering. They became so frequent under the previous administration that coverage dropped off due to a lack of interest.
- A Southwest passenger jet had been cleared for takeoff on the same runway as a FedEx cargo plane had also been cleared to land in February 2023. The planes came within less than 100 feet of colliding.
- A United Boeing 777 and a Cessna in Honolulu nearly collided with each other on the same runway, coming within 1,170 feet of each other, in January 2023.
- A Delta Airlines plane that same month almost collided with an American Airlines flight in New York.
- A United Airlines plane nearly plummeted into the ocean after leaving Maui in December of 2022.
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Think about that for a minute. All of those incidents were in a roughly two-month timeframe. Buttigieg lowered close calls by first raising them. It’s the inflation argument all over again.
Aside from the constant near-misses in the air, Pete’s most notable moments include the toxic train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio; fighting ‘gender inequity’ by investing in female crash test dummies; and taking nearly two months of paternity leave while the country was suffering from empty shelves and high costs of groceries due to the supply-chain crisis.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Buttigieg was undoubtedly a disaster in the Biden administration, deep over his head in running the nation’s transportation systems. Trump and newly minted Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy are the adults coming back into the room.
Let them sort through your mess, Pete. You just keep on shaking your fist furiously–from the sidelines.
