Destroying their narrative.
It’s been a rough start to the year for the aviation industry, with several high-profile plane crashes raising concerns about airline safety. Of course the most notable is the crash in Washington DC between an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter that left 67 dead in the first commercial plane crash in 16 years.
Since then though, we’ve also had plane crashes in Philadelphia, Alaska and Arizona, among others, that have made headlines and left people questioning whether it’s safe to fly.
Naturally, a lot of people rushed to blame…Donald Trump for the plane crashes. More specifically, many in the media and online pointed to the Trump administration cuts to the FAA as making air travel less safe.
Now, never mind that data from the NTSB shows that airplane accidents actually reached a record LOW in January 2025, with the 62 total accidents beating the previous record low of 70 back in 2012. And of course, the vast majority of these incidents were on private planes, which have a much higher incident rate than commercial air travel.
While 10 of the accidents were fatal, that number ties 2022 for the safest January on record. So while it may feel like there are more aviation accidents, the reality seems to be that we’re simply paying more attention to them after the horrific crash in Washington DC.
The accidents also come at a time when the FAA is facing a historic shortage of air traffic controllers, leading to towers that are understaffed and overworked as the number of flights just continue to grow. And this isn’t a new phenomenon: The FAA has been actively trying to recruit air traffic controllers to fill the shortage for a decade
But none of that matters to those who want to blame Trump for the plane crashes.
During this morning’s edition of CBS Mornings, anchor Gayle King attempted to bait Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian into blaming the Trump administration cuts for the recent airline disasters, including this week’s crash in Toronto, Canada (which is, famously, not in the United States).
But Bastian wasn’t having it – and King looked stunned as the CEO explained that the cuts have nothing to do with aviation safety:
“The cuts do not affect us, Gayle. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA, and the cuts I understand were 300 people, and they were in non-critical safety functions.
The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies. They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and safety investigators, so no, I’m not concerned with that at all.”
CBS's Gayle King tries to blame Trump for the plane crashes, is debunked by Delta's CEO pic.twitter.com/P9m5SxYKOQ
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 19, 2025
The Trump administration has repeatedly emphasized that none of the cuts to the FAA are to positions related to safety and security. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently affirmed that “zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go,” after criticism from his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg.
Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system. In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world.
Here’s the… https://t.co/LCL1dswC2T
— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) February 18, 2025
According to the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, 133 newly-hired employees who were still in their probationary period were recently let go, including those in positions like “environmental protection specialist” and “telecommunications specialist.” Sounds like some lawyers were let go too, and as a lawyer myself, I can safely say that we have nothing to do with airline safety and hiring more lawyers won’t make air travel any safer.
Of course nothing’s going to change the minds of people who are going to blame Trump for everything bad that happens, but it looks like Delta’s CEO won’t be feeding into the narrative. Sorry, Gayle.
The post CBS Anchor Gayle King Looks Shocked When Delta CEO Refuses To Blame Trump Administration For Plane Crashes first appeared on Whiskey Riff.