Trump Admits ‘I Don’t Know’ If Race Or Gender Caused Air Crash — Literal Seconds After Signing Anti-DEI Memo

President Donald Trump admitted “I don’t know” if race or gender played a role in the D.C. air crash literal seconds after signing a presidential memorandum echoing his earlier assertions about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.

Trump held a press briefing on Thursday morning to discuss the air crash in which an American Airlines flight collided with a Black Hawk Army Helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport at 8:48 pm Wednesday night. All 67 souls on the two aircraft were lost.

At that press conference, he blamed former President Joe Biden and DEI for the disaster. When pressed by ABC’s Mary Bruce and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Trump went on the attack but admitted he had no evidence to support his claims. Trump was widely criticized for the comments.

Hours later, Trump held a signing ceremony in the Oval Office for a memorandum entitled “Immediate Assessment of Aviation Safety” that explicitly connected the air disaster with DEI.

As he signed the memorandum, Trump again lashed out at former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and DEI policies. But seconds later, ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers challenged Trump, directly asking if he believes race or gender played a role — and Trump admitted he didn’t know

ABC NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT KAREN TRAVERS: Mr. President, to be clear, are you saying race or gender played a role in this tragedy?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It may have. I don’t know. Incompetence might have played a role.

We’ll let you know that. But we want the most competent people. We don’t care what race they are.

We want the most competent people, especially in those positions. And, you know, you’re talking about extremely complex things. And if they don’t have a great brain, a great power of the brain, they’re not going to be very good at what they do, and bad things will happen.

Watch above via The White House.