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The Federal Aviation Administration is ordering airlines to certify their merit-based hiring practices as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign against DEI programs.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the new policy on Friday, saying airlines that don’t formally commit to merit-based hiring will be subject to FAA investigation. President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to cancel DEI hiring programs early on in his return to the White House.
“When families board their aircraft, they should fly with confidence knowing the pilot behind the controls is the best of the best. The American people don’t care what their pilot looks like or their gender—they just care that they are most qualified man or woman for the job,” Duffy said in a statement.
“Safety drives everything we do, and this commonsense measure will increase transparency between passengers and airlines,” he added.
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Trump’s FAA mocked the direction the agency had taken under former President Joe Biden, calling the policies “absurd” and saying they “wasted time renaming cockpits to flight decks.”
Trump has moved to systematically dismantle DEI programs across the federal government, signing a pair of executive orders in his first days in office that directed agencies to identify and shut down DEI offices, terminate equity-focused grants and contracts, and throw out long-standing affirmative action requirements for federal contractors.
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The president targeted DEI at the FAA in particular following a tragic plane crash in the nation’s capital last year that saw a passenger plane collide with a U.S. military helicopter over the Potomac River.
“We must have only the highest standards for those who work in our aviation system,” Trump said. “Only the highest aptitude — you have to be the highest intellect — and psychologically superior people, were allowed to qualify for air traffic controllers.”
“We have to have our smartest people. It doesn’t matter what they look like, how they speak, who they are. What matters is intellect, talent. The word ‘talent.’ They have to be talented geniuses,” he continued. “We can’t have regular people doing that job. They won’t be able to do it.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
