“President Donald J Trump Ends DEI Madness and Restores Excellence and Safety within the Federal Aviation Administration. FLIGHTS SHOULD BE SUPERVISED BY THE BEST EMPLOYEES: President Donald J Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum terminating a Biden Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hiring policy that prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over safety and efficiency,” says a January 22, 2025 White House memo on aviation safety orders.

“This Presidential Memorandum orders the Secretary of Transportation and FAA Administrator to immediately stop Biden DEI hiring programs and return to non-discriminatory, merit-based hiring. It also requires the FAA Administrator to review the past performance and performance standards of all FAA employees in critical safety positions and make clear that any individual who fails to demonstrate adequate capability is replaced by someone who will ensure Americans’ flight safety and efficiency. MILLIONS OF AMERICANS RELY ON SAFE, TIMELY AIR TRAVEL EVERY DAY: Safety and competence should be the only job criteria for FAA employees, yet the Biden Administration violated the public trust – as well as the law – by prioritizing illegal DEI hiring.”

“Every day, more than 45,000 flights and 2.9 million airline passengers traveling for work or fun or to visit friends and family entrust their lives to the FAA. Almost unbelievably, as a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative, the Biden FAA specifically recruited and hired individuals with ‘severe intellectual’ disabilities, psychiatric issues, and complete paralysis over other individuals who sought to work for the FAA. President Trump is immediately terminating this illegal and dangerous program and requiring that all FAA hiring be based solely on ensuring the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence,” the memo continued. National Zero is late in picking this up, apologies for the delay – though there was a lot of other news going on in the world of politics over the past week.

More seriously, nothing like Thursday’s mid-air collision over the Potomac ever happened when Joe Biden, Lloyd Austin, and Pete Buttigieg were in office. It’s impossible to know at this early stage what, if anything, policy changes by Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Sean Duffy had to do with this. It’s equally impossible to ignore the fact that the above memo repeatedly emphasized that air travelers would be safer under their regime than they were with Biden “DEI” beforehand. They aren’t.