Donald Trump was arguably the most ableist president in this country’s history. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that last week Donald Trump Jr. posted a screenshot on X about the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seeking to hire people with “severe intellectual” disabilities. “There is no level of depravity the elites will not go to to force their agenda upon you,” Trump Jr. wrote, further claiming that “[t]his stuff will get people killed and they couldn’t care less!”
Donald Trump was arguably the most ableist president. It’s not surprising, then, that Donald Trump Jr. is a chip off the old block.
In a story about the FAA, which has an initiative to hire people with a range of disabilities, Fox News saw fit to mention a door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blowing out, suggesting with that juxtaposition that there’s a relationship between the initiative and danger to passengers.
But as the fact-checking site Snopes pointed out, that FAA initiative — which says the agency is open to filling some positions with people whose disabilities include “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism” — has been on the FAA's website at least since 2013.
That means the initiative existed the entire time that Trump was president, but apparently without a single negative tweet about it from Trump Jr. But, of course, the FAA's policy not being new is not the only reason the conservative attack is wrong. It's just as absurd to suggest that the policy is somehow connected to the failure of a door plug that, The Wall Street Journal reported, was manufactured in Malaysia.
Trump Jr. wasn’t the only figure from the right fearmongering over the FAA initiative and treating it as if it were new. People who should be sensitive to discrimination against disabled people — such as Elon Musk, who’s autistic, and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who's the mother of a child with Down syndrome — questioned the policy. “Just had a conversation with some smart people could not believe this is happening,” Musk posted on X.
After waging war on critical race theory, conservative activists set their sights on diversity, equity and inclusion. Although they’ve put the greatest emphasis on the aspect of DEI that seeks to mitigate racism, this latest attack from Trump Jr., Musk, Palin and Fox News itself is a foray into targeting DEI initiatives that focus on people with disabilities.
While conservatives feel compelled to wink-and-nod and avoid explicitly racist language when attacking racial diversity issues, they are more explicit in their arguments against hiring people with disabilities. They recycle the trope that has justified either not hiring people with disabilities or even paying them below the minimum wage: that disabled labor is somehow less or that they are not capable of doing their jobs. In attacking the FAA initiative, they’re calling out DEI in an industry that’s unspeakably miserable for people with disabilities.
While conservatives avoid explicitly racist language when attacking racial diversity issues, they are more explicit in their arguments against hiring people with disabilities.
The Arc, the premier organization for people with intellectual disabilities, points out that people with disabilities can often be overwhelmed by bright lights, loud noises and crowds. Add to that the lack empathy and understanding around intellectual or developmental disabilities from people who work at airports, which can sometimes lead to meltdowns.
There have been some welcome developments in recent years. Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, for example, installed a mock cabin to give people with intellectual or developmental disabilities a familiarity with planes and flying. More airports now have sensory rooms to offer reprieve for people with developmental disabilities when they face overload.
But those are piecemeal initiatives. Hiring people with developmental disabilities — far from lowering the standards for air travel — would go a long way toward creating more understanding and empathetic environments for people with disabilities as they travel. After all, an industry that has to make a space accommodating for disabled employees would necessarily have to make that space accommodating for disabled passengers. And disabled people who are put in decision-making positions would be more likely to work to make sure that disabled customers are treated fairly.
During the peak of last year’s Thanksgiving travel rush, many of us saw that viral video of American Airlines workers at Miami International Airport mishandling a wheelchair. One worker sent the wheelchair speeding down a luggage chute and another let it crash on the tarmac.
Responding to the embarrassment, American Airlines said in a statement: “We recognize how important it is to support the independence of customers with disabilities by ensuring the proper care of mobility devices throughout their journey with us. This visual is deeply concerning and we are gathering more details so that we can address them with our team. We will continue to work hard to improve our handling of assistive devices across our network.”
Hiring people with developmental disabilities would go a long way toward creating more empathetic environments for people with disabilities as they travel.
The bigger story, though, is that stories of airlines mishandling wheelchairs so that they are rendered inoperable are far too common. The Department of Transportation found that between 2019 and 2022, the largest U.S. airline companies and their branded codeshare partners mishandled 32,640 wheelchairs and scooters on domestic flights, at a rate of 1.45%.
Trump Jr.’s suggestion that the more than 10-year-old initiative “will get people killed” is, again, classic fearmongering. Tweets from him, Musk and other right-wing provocateurs aren’t aimed at making the skies safer or protecting passengers. They’re aimed at excluding others. Just like their other anti-DEI statements are.