The DC Air Disaster Is Only the Beginning

Trump and his crew will peddle bullshit and evade responsibility every time something bad happens on their watch.

Our stupid transportation secretary Sean Duffy. (Oliver Contreras/AFP via Getty Images)

Here are three things to keep in mind today as the first mass-casualty event of the second Trump administration continues to unfold before our very eyes.

1. This is a horrific tragedy with a very real human cost that supersedes just about everything else.

2. There is a crucial difference between “who’s to blame?” and “who is responsible?”

3. The Trump administration is willfully obfuscating that difference and will continue to do so through every inevitable tragedy in the four years to come.

I’ve been trying to remember those three points all morning as I watch pundits and politicians alike use this moment to score grotesque culture war points or insist that X action by Y public figure is obviously the direct and immediate reason there are dozens of dead commuters in Washington DC river. It’s disheartening in the moment, and terrifying in the long run as Donald Trump and his cabinet of ghouls try to pin last night’s mid-air collision over the nation’s capitol on “DEI” (which is to say: Black people) and Democrats.

While we have no idea what actually led to the catastrophic crash between an army helicopter and an American Airlines commuter jet on Wednesday evening, what’s already clear is that no matter who’s to blame for the disaster, the people in power are never going to take responsibility for a tragedy that happened on their watch.

And it’s only going to get worse. You probably already knew that, but it’s worth repeating and unpacking. So here we go.