Donald Trump Suggests Diversity Hiring Caused Tragic D.C. Plane Crash

9:58 AM PT -- After President Trump personally called out Biden Admin Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a press conference about Wednesday night's D.C. flight catastrophe, Buttigieg responded on X, noting some crucial details and prodding the president to "show actual leadership."

Donald Trump says diversity, equity and inclusion hiring "could have been" to blame for the crash that killed 67 people over Washington, D.C. Wednesday ... and, he's placing the blame squarely on Democrats playing politics.

The 47th President of the United States addressed the assembled press corps Thursday morning in the White House's briefing room ... and, while he started with a prepared statement about the tragedy, he quickly went off the rails and started pointing to the FAA's hiring policies as the reason ... even as the incident is still early in its investigation.

As we told you, extremely tense audio reveals air traffic controllers warned the U.S. Army helicopter that fatally crashed into an American Airlines passenger plane moments before the catastrophe.

But the president claims the FAA is hiring people with disabilities who shouldn't be in the roles ... 'cause he says that only the best of the best should be air traffic controllers. As for why he believes DEI is to blame, the president said "I have common sense ... other people don't."

Trump says his administration does not yet know what caused the tragedy ... but then adds he will present some opinions, including one where he straight-up calls out Joe Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for having "a good line of bulls***."

Sean Duffy -- Trump's new Secretary of Transportation -- followed the political talking points ... bashing diversity hiring and claiming his department won't accept excuses for this tragedy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth repeated much of the same. Vice President JD Vance also took the podium to reiterate similar points.

As you know ... a passenger plane carrying 64 people -- including multiple U.S. figure skaters -- collided with a military helicopter with 3 troops onboard late Wednesday night -- exploding above the Potomac River in the nation's capital.

Despite the length of the White House press conference, officials still have not said exactly what caused the crash.

D.C. Fire Chief John Donnelly says the department doesn't believe any of the passengers on the plane or the military personnel in the Black Hawk helicopter survived. Trump confirmed there were no survivors in his briefing.

Trump has already posted to social media about the crash ... placing the blame on the helicopter and air traffic control for the crash -- adding the plane was on a routine approach at the airport when the chopper hit it. He repeated these claims during the press conference.