While perusing trump’s Bullshit Social (aka “Truth” Social) feed the other day when writing that gargantuan post about how and why he is so wrong on the subject of tariffs, I couldn’t help but notice two of his posts about the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle aeroplane. They are classic examples of why qualified, professional investigators are required to be allowed to do their work before any bullshit artists (aka, politicians) should say anything.
The first, posted on 29 January 2025, the very day of the crash:
donald trump, Bullshit Social post, 2025-01-29.
The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane. This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!
Where do you start with this one?!
- “The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport.”: Wow, and he didn’t even know the race or gender of the pilot at that point when he described its approach as “perfect”.
- “The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time.”: Yeah, you can see that on video after the crash with circles around the aircraft involved, but that wasn’t what either pilot saw.
- “It is a CLEAR NIGHT”: Clearly trump is not a pilot. Not only does he not know the first thing about flying, he certainly doesn’t know anything about flying at night, so his focusing on it being a “clear night” is absolutely useless.
- “… the lights on the plane were blazing …”: Of course they were … if the aircraft was flying towards you, or the camera that took the footage you saw. Clearly that’s not what the helicopter pilot saw.
- “… why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn.”: (Questions generally call for a question mark.) But good question, don! I wonder if that might be the focus of a professional investigation! Thanks for giving us a reasonable list of the helicopter pilot’s options.
- “Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.”: (Again, question mark?) How do you know that anyone in the air traffic tower saw either aircraft and could tell, from their vantage point, that a collision was imminent? In air traffic control once a pilot tells a controller that he sees an aircraft he is supposed to avoid, the onus for their separation is taken away from the controller and assumed by the pilot. Oh, you didn’t know that? Then shut the fuck up! Professional investigators doing professional investigations and writing professional reports know this. Mere mortals sitting on the toilet in the White House do not, and so should not comment on things about which they are ignorant.
- “This is a bad situation that looks like it should have been prevented. NOT GOOD!!!”: Thank-you Captain Obvious! What would we do without people like you so well-endowed with common sense?!
The second was posted two days later:
donald trump, Bullshit Social post, 2025-01-31.
The Blackhawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???
- “… by a lot.”: Your first grade English teacher could have done a gooder job teaching you English. Maybe he or she was a DEI hire.
- “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”: First, congratulations on all of the extra question marks. They pretty much make up for your forgetting to use them in your previous post. So yes, good point, so we’ll immediately fire the professional investigator now since you have clearly cracked the case.
This is a textbook example of why crash investigators — like the ones at DCA after the crash appearing before the press — go to great lengths, as they always do, not to prejudge the investigation’s and the report’s conclusions.
This is also a textbook example of why you cannot trust anyone who claims they have common sense, and who also claims that he’s the “least racist person in the world”.