Researching Trump’s statements about DEI, past administrations after DC crash | In context
In a Thursday press conference addressing the plane-helicopter collision that killed 67 people near Ronald Reagan National Airport, President Donald Trump made an array of statements about past and present federal policy for air traffic controllers.
He at one point said the crash "could have been" the result of diversity hiring initiatives, and he claimed air traffic controllers are allowed to work with serious health issues and disabilities.
Here's what the Paste BN Fact Check Team found on how Trump's statements compare to Federal Aviation Administration standards and past changes.
Claim: Air traffic controllers can have epilepsy, other serious health conditions
“Hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism – all qualify for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country.”
FAA policies say this is wrong.
Air traffic controllers must regularly meet specific medical standards and must be cleared by a flight surgeon, according to FAA documents. Those who fail to meet them are disqualified from the job.
Controllers must undergo regular medical examinations and are required to report any changes to their health to their flight surgeon, the documents indicate.
One of the conditions referenced by Trump – epilepsy – is specifically mentioned as disqualifying in the FAA documents. Controllers also must pass a hearing test and have 20/20 or better vision in each eye, with or without corrective lenses, for objects at long distances and 20/40 or better vision in each eye at a distance of 16 inches.
Additionally, they must have no history of bipolar disorder or any other psychoses or personality disorders and may not have had a blood alcohol test result of 0.04 or greater during the previous two years. They may not have a seated blood pressure higher than 155 over 95. And they must have no history of several cardiac conditions that include a heart attack, a cardiac valve replacement, a permanent pacemaker or a heart transplant.
The list of disabilities quoted by Trump comes from the FAA website's diversity and inclusion page, which lists people the federal government had a "special emphasis" on hiring at least as far back as 2013, FAA archives show. It remained online through Trump's first term.
– Joedy McCreary
Claim: Trump’s executive order ‘restored’ high standards for air traffic controllers
“As you know last week, long before the crash, I signed an executive order restoring our highest standards for air traffic controllers and other important jobs throughout the country.”
Trump is referring to his executive order titled “Keeping Americans Safe in Aviation” that claimed former President Joe Biden’s administration “sought to specifically recruit and hire individuals with serious infirmities that could impact the execution of their essential life-saving duties.” The order called for an immediate “return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring.” It did not specifically mention air traffic controllers.
The “Diversity and Inclusion” section of the FAA’s website under the Biden administration, which is no longer active, said it “actively recruits, hires, promotes, retains, develops and advances people with disabilities.” It went on to say conditions including vision loss, complete paralysis, epilepsy and “severe intellectual disability” were among those that the federal government “has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring.” But the FAA site under Biden didn't say those individuals were specifically sought for air traffic controller positions.
The Office of Personnel Management’s website under the Biden administration noted that certain physical disabilities and medical conditions are “disqualifying because there are medical and/or management reasons to conclude that an individual with such impairment/condition cannot perform the duties of the position without unacceptable risk to his or her own health, or to the health or safety of others – employees or the public.”
Such conditions included epilepsy and having less than 20/20 vision, severe spinal deformity or any kind of psychosis or neurosis.
– BrieAnna Frank
Donald Trump claim: Air traffic controllers have shorter lifespans due to stress
“Brilliant people have to be in those positions and their lives are shortened, very substantially shortened, because of the stress.”
Paste BN found no record of studies showing air traffic controllers in particular have “substantially” shorter lifespans because of their profession.
It’s understood to be a stressful job, however.
The FAA requires air traffic controllers to retire at age 56 to “prevent burnout,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The FAA also created a training to foster air traffic controller trainees’ “knowledge of career-specific stressors, stress responses and stress management techniques.”
There are studies supporting the notion that chronic stress reduces one’s lifespan, though they’re not specific to air traffic controllers.
A Finnish study published in 2020 found that chronic stress shortened the life expectancies of both men and women by more than two years, for example. A Yale study the following year found that chronic stress accelerated the aging process.
– BrieAnna Frank
Claim: Trump changed country’s aviation hiring standards after taking over for Obama
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system. I changed the Obama standards from very mediocre at best to extraordinary.”
Trump sought to blame his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, for FAA hiring practices that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. But Trump did not provide any evidence to support his claims that hiring practices during the Biden and Obama administrations played a role in the crash.
It wasn't immediately clear what standards Trump was referencing, but archives of the FAA website show diversity initiatives stretch back to at least 2013 and continued throughout Trump's first term. The 2013 diversity and inclusion page on the FAA website said the federal government has a "special emphasis in recruitment and hiring" people with targeted disabilities, which it defines as "hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism." That exact description remained online through Trump's term, visible in 2019 and in January 2021 versions of the page.
Under Trump in April 2019, the FAA announced an Aviation Development Program that allowed 20 people with disabilities to train at air traffic control centers for careers in air traffic operations. Candidates in the program were subject to the "same rigorous consideration in terms of aptitude, medical and security qualifications" as traditional applicants, the release said.
– Chris Mueller