Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
However, there have been numerous fatalities in crashes of private aircraft. If Trump is responsible for there being no airline crashes, is he responsible for the private plane crashes? The FAA regulates those too.
And what about the crash of a medevac helicopter in Arkansas a month and a half ago? Or the medevac helicopter crash in Virginia in September?
Or the helicopter crash near the Charlottesville alt-right rally that killed two state police troopers? That one we can pin on Trump because his blatant racist baiting throughout the campaign and his presidency encouraged the racists and Nazis to take to the streets, causing the accident that killed two troopers and the murder of a woman run down by a car.
Or maybe we can blame Trump for the tremendous rise of incivility on airlines, and the beating of a United Airlines passenger. Or we can blame Trump for the man who smeared feces all over the lavatories of a United flight last week.
What will Trump take credit for next?
Trump has nothing to do with airline safety. The only thing he has to do with aviation is fly around the country on Air Force One to play golf.
Trump did not even appoint the current administrator, Michael Huerta, a Democrat who was appointed by Barack Obama in 2013.
Huerta resigned two days after Trump's tweet, though this was because his five-year term is ending, and I would guess that he doesn't think Trump would reappoint him, and probably wants nothing further to do with this dumpster fire of an administration.
Trump has no one lined up to take Huerta's place, and given the dismally slow pace with which Trump has filled government vacancies, it is not likely to be filled any time soon. And when it is filled, you can be sure that it will be an industry shill and not an independent-minded regulator, which means safety will take a back seat to profitability. As if flying weren't already miserable enough...
Which means we can expect this long string of death-free flying to end when Trump's man is in.
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