Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. She has covered the Republican primary elections and the American education system extensively. Katherine joined Newsweek in 2020 and had previously worked at Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and obtained her Master’s degree from New York University. You can get in touch with Katherine by emailing [email protected]. Languages: English.
Based on the facts, it was observed and verified first through the journalist, or informed and verified of competent sources.
Less than five miles from the Potomac River, a familiar version of President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
Trump gave the impression of assuming the role of the fault in chief following the fatal clash of airplanes on Thursday, observing the tragedy as some other American citizen asking questions, that the leader of a country that deals with his first advertising crisis in 15 years.
An American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided around 9 p.m. on Wednesday as the regional jet carrying 64 people was approaching the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington.
Trump, during his first appearance on the podium of the White House press room, since he held the workplace last week, presented his condolences to the families of the patients before without delay in changing the base to the former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, former Secretary of Shipping Pete Buttigieg, projects for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and even pilots in the Army helicopter.
When asked what led him to those conclusions since the investigation into the accident had only a few hours and the maximum of patients had not even been identified, the president replied: “Because I do not make unusual sense. “
On Thursday afternoon, bodies continued to be removed from the icy waters of the Potomac, while emergency officials worked tirelessly to locate the 67 other suspected people who have died in what has the deadliest twist of the states’ fate since 2001.
Trump’s rapid comments remember that, although many things can be others at the time the Trump administration, many remain the same. The tone brought through the president on Thursday looked a lot like score style that took his first mandate.
It was a strategy that displayed at the expense of his political rivals, which nicknamed nicknames such as “doing nothing Democrats”, “Cryin ‘Chuck Schumer” and “Crazy Nancy [Pelosi]”.
In the first months of the Covid pandemic, Trump repeatedly blamed China for the virus, tweeting remarks like, “The Democrats are just, as always, looking for trouble. They do nothing constructive, even in times of crisis. They don’t want to blame their cash cow, China, for the plague. China is blaming Europe,” on May 2, 2020.
But it was Trump’s own administration that failed to entirely halt flights from China in those critical early weeks. Between February and March 2020, as Trump was casting about for someone to blame for the growing crisis that would engulf his presidency, nearly 40,000 people traveled from China to the U.S., despite limited travel restrictions he put in place.
Above the same time, with the country in the grip of the first wave of the pandemic, Trump said the federal government doesn’t have to save states and cities suffering from the budget crisis.
“Why do people and taxpayers of the United States explode states (such as Illinois, for example) and cities badly, in any case, the Democrat directs and manages, when most other states do not seek rescue help? Open to discuss anything, but I just ask. “
On the day of that tweet, April 27, New York City recorded 337 Covid deaths.
Fast forward to New Year’s Day 2025, weeks before taking the workplace for a moment, Trump seemed to resort to this air when he blamed lax border security for a terrorist attack in New Orleans, which left 15 dead and dozens more injured. The perpetrator of this attack on a Texas-born U. S. citizen.
Republican strategist Matt Klink told Newsweek on Thursday that Trump’s reaction to the Washington crash had missed the mark. “
“Instead of indicating that I still did not have all the data of what the accident caused, he injected politics into an already very emotional situation,” Klink said.
He continued, “The President needs to realize that the election is over, and while he wants to smash the status quo, which people who voted for him support, at this particular moment, Americans were looking for reassurance from the commander-in-chief that he and his new team, which isn’t even complete, would get to the bottom of what caused the crash and enact changes to make sure that events like the crash are rare.”
The veteran Democratic strategist Matt Bennett said that the guilt game is very important for Trump’s correct populism, where those figures “must be the hero and have a bad guilt. “
“In the wake of a terrible tragedy like this, top public figures would only help the country weep and swear to investigate,” Bennett told Newsweek. “Trump, on the other hand, is looking for tactics to grow and blame his enemies. It’s not unexpected, this is what he did the last time he was president, but no less unpleasant that he sees pointing the finger with no evidence to help the country heal.
Political Rep. Jay Townsend criticized the president’s response.
“When fireman show up to put out a fire, that is their top priority. They don’t waste time finding someone to blame for the fire.”
But Steve Mitchell, a GOP pollster from Michigan, argued that Trump’s response was just putting voice to what other Americans had been thinking.
In his initial reaction to the tragedy, Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday night that the plane was on a “perfect and routine” path and that the helicopter deserves to have noticed the plane’s “burning” lighting fixtures on a “clear night. “He asked why the helicopter didn’t move away from the plane’s trail and why the tower didn’t interfere to order this helicopter to move.
“This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!” Trump said.
Mitchell said one of the reasons Trump is popular among his voters is because “he often echoes what others are saying.”
“When you look at what happened on a crystal clear night at one of the most sophisticated airports in the world, it’s difficult not to draw the conclusion that this could’ve been prevented,” Mitchell said.
On Thursday, Trump held a moment of silence for the victims, telling the press, “We are in mourning, this has really shaken a lot of people.” But he moved on quickly, saying, “We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas. We’ll find out how this disaster occurred and we’ll ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”
Mitchell applauded Trump for extended his sympathy and condolences to those impacted by the collision and for not offering “platitudes or cliches,” and instead saying “what everyone else was thinking.”
“[It]is why voters identify so well with him and with his leadership style,” Mitchell said. “He continues to say what he thinks, and do what he says he is going to do.”
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. She has covered the Republican primary elections and the American education system extensively. Katherine joined Newsweek in 2020 and had previously worked at Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and obtained her Master’s degree from New York University. You can get in touch with Katherine by emailing [email protected]. Languages: English.
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. She has covered the Republican primary elections and the American education system extensively. Katherine joined Newsweek in 2020 and had previously worked at Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. She is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and obtained her Master’s degree from New York University. You can get in touch with Katherine by emailing [email protected]. Languages: English.