Analysis: Criticisms of diversity programs from the right often ignore the facts of disasters on the ground, writes Josh Marcus. Search and rescue teams hadn’t even finished pulling the bodies out of the Potomac River before Donald Trump began blaming diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs for the disastrous Wednesday night plane crash between a military helicopter and a commercial jet outside Washington that likely killed 67 people.

During a rambling press conference Thursday, Trump pushed his theory that air traffic controllers were to blame, then claimed without evidence that the Biden and Obama administrations had lowered aviation hiring standards. He also criticized an effort to hire people with disabilities that existed throughout his entire first term in office. “I put safety first,” Trump claimed. “Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen because this was the lowest level.”.

Vice President JD Vance claimed: "If you go to some of the headlines over the past ten years many hundreds of people are suing the government because they would like to be air traffic controllers but were turned away because of the color of their skin. That policy ends under Donald Trump’s leadership.”. It was only the most recent disaster for which Trump and his allies have blamed DEI, even though the facts don’t support them.

Experts say a variety of factors caused the devastating fires, from drought conditions, to 100 mph Santa Ana winds, to neighborhoods built in dangerous fire zones, to a city water distribution system that was unable to keep hydrants filled fast enough to match a wildfire-scale blaze descending on a dense urban environment. No matter how multi-faceted a crisis, the playbook against DEI has been run again and again.

Mayor Scott and Maryland Governor Wes Moore are both Black and Democrats. The last four years have witnessed a sea change in how the country and its institutions consider race and identity. That triggered a backlash. While Trump and his supporters consistently argue that opposing DEI is in fact colorblind, with a focus on fairness and merit, it also can’t be ignored how demonizing people of color is a core part of the Trump movement.

The MAGA movement, in other words, doesn’t seem to actually want a society that ignores race and identity; they just won’t admit admit what they’re doing is identity politics too, just from the right instead of the left. The consequences of all this DEI wrangling may seem philosophical, but they are very real and deeply ironic. The perception that California leaders are a bunch of social justice warriors who can’t be trusted seems to be feeding into recent Republican threats to impose conditions on disaster aid to the state, which is highly atypical.

The new administration has moved to end federal funding for DEI programs across the federal government and organizations supported by its work, impacting thousands across agencies and disciplines. And the White House sets the tone for the rest of the country. When the next disaster rolls around, it’ll only be a matter of time before the right hops online and goes viral with claims that DEI is to blame. And the most powerful people in the world, regardless of the facts, will be quick to believe them.