Trump lashing out at diversity reveals a deeper truth about the president

When the Imperial Japanese Navy wreaked havoc at Pearl Harbour in December 1941, a sombre Franklin D Roosevelt addressed the nation to conjure a “day which will live in infamy”.

When Nasa’s Challenger space shuttle blew up shortly after lift-off in 1986, instantly killing the seven astronauts on board, Ronald Reagan spoke of how these brave young men and women had “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God”.

More recently, in 2012, after the horrific murder of 20 young schoolchildren at Sandy Hook, an emotional Barack Obama addressed the need to “heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds”.

And on Thursday night after 67 people perished in the icy waters of the Potomac River, Donald Trump – checks notes – blamed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that had led to the Federal Aviation Administration hiring people with “severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities”. There was something too about “dwarves”.

This, he conceded, was not based on any empirical evidence – it was his “common sense”. You could see the bewilderment of so many of the reporters who had gathered in the briefing room.

Sure, Trump had started his remarks by talking about how “in moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all”. But then – boom – the president went on the attack. The politicisation of a national tragedy was breathtaking in its audaciousness. Biden was to blame. Obama was to blame.

How is it possible that the 67 dead Americans in the Potomac, many still to be recovered from its murky waters, would be the latest front in the culture wars? What about those who had lost loved ones? Surely, they should be the only focus in the immediate aftermath.

The transportation secretary of the Biden administration, Pete Buttigieg, said it was “despicable”, accusing the president of “lying not leading”. He also pointed out that there had been no civilian air passenger deaths over the previous four years.

This is the what; the what unfolded yesterday. But what about the why? Why does Trump do this?

About four years ago, I went with the newly inaugurated President Biden on Air Force One to a town hall meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And watching him engage empathetically with the audience gave me a realisation. Joe Biden loves people; Donald Trump loves a crowd. It’s an important distinction.

Trump is uncomfortable in the consoler-in-chief role. He reads the words if they’re there before him, but he can’t do touchy-feely. He’s a fighter. He’s a “kill or be killed” man with an acute sense of danger.

And the bald, incontrovertible fact of the collision over the Potomac is that the crash happened on his watch. And we know where the buck stops, don’t we? The fear lurking in Trump is that if he doesn’t blame, then he might be blamed himself. And that would be unthinkable.

In the Trump worldview, everything is a zero-sum game. You can never have a win-win. You win or you lose.

Look at one of the most hubristic things he said when he was president first time around. At the beginning of 2018, he took the credit for the fact that across the world the year before there had not been a single civilian passenger death. He didn’t – couldn’t – explain why it was down to him that no planes anywhere in the world had fallen out of the sky. But if there are victories to be had, they are his; and if there is failure, then it’s someone else.

So rather than say what everyone was saying – that there’ll be a full and detailed investigation, no stone will be left unturned, all explanations will be looked at – Trump needed to point a finger.

His predecessors had let standards slip; they were so obsessed about equality and trans rights, that they had allowed aircraft to crash into each other. Maybe the investigators will find there is something to this – you can be sure this White House will be pressuring for that. But at the moment the truth looks far, far more prosaic; certainly NOTHING has been shown that points to that. Staff shortages in the tower, maybe; a helicopter pilot at the wrong altitude? Again, possible.

Donald Trump on the campaign trail is formidable: irascible, funny, powerful, pointed. He knows how to fire up an audience like no other politician I have ever seen. I also think his instinctive reading of the room is phenomenal. Though a privileged billionaire, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his perception of the American public mood – in 2016 and 2024 was remarkable.

But that doesn’t mean he is infallible. And dare I say it, a disaster like this is what Trump is least well equipped to deal with. More in sorrow than in anger is not what the current president does. Anger is always pre-eminent; and over the past couple of days it has been jarring.