FAA Leader Quit Before D.C. Plane Crash—Thanks to Elon Musk

The administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Whitaker, resigned from his position on January 20 after repeated demands from Elon Musk that he quit, leaving the agency without a Senate-confirmed leader during a major crisis in the wake of the D.C. plane crash.

Musk called for Whitaker’s resignation in September after the FAA chief proposed fining Musk’s company SpaceX over $600,000 in civil penalties for failing to follow license requirements during two launches in 2023. Whitaker told a congressional panel at the time that fines were “the only tool we have to get compliance on safety matters.”

The tech CEO and fascism enthusiast repeatedly attacked Whitaker from his X account, claiming in one post that the FAA was “harassing SpaceX.” Musk also replied to an X poster who said the FAA “should not exist” and attacked Whitaker for preventing his goal of colonizing Mars.

“The fundamental problem is that humanity will forever be confined to Earth unless there is radical reform at the FAA!” Musk posted in a reply to Australian YouTuber Marcus House.

FAA administrators typically serve for a five-year term, but Whitaker only served for one year, replacing Trump appointee Stephen Dickson in 2022. Whitaker had been confirmed by a bipartisan 98–0 Senate vote in October 2023.

On Wednesday, a commercial American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter above Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board both aircraft.

Since January 20, the head of the FAA has been deputy FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau, who was only sworn in last week, giving him a stiff learning curve early on the job.

When Whitaker announced in December that he would resign, he told FAA staff in an email, “The United States is the safest and most complex airspace in the world, and that is because of your commitment to the safety of the flying public.” Wednesday’s disaster will certainly raise questions as to whether something went wrong in air safety protocols and whether disruption at the agency contributed to the crash.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appearance Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) sparked a terse discussion of vaccine safety, pushing at least one Republican to set the record straight on the genuine science behind the jab.

Opting to lecture rather than question Kennedy over the course of several minutes, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul—an ophthalmologist—claimed that it’s unclear what the root of conditions such as autism or schizophrenia are, and that they, by all means, could be caused by vaccines.

“There isn’t proof that the vaccines cause it, that’s true,” Paul said. “But we don’t know what causes it yet. So shouldn’t we be at least open-minded? We take 72 vaccines. Could it be?”

He also went on to point his finger at the hepatitis B vaccine, claiming that a jab to prevent the sexually transmitted illness shouldn’t be required for infants.

“I waited on the hepatitis B vaccine until my kids went to school. Does that make me a horrible person?” Paul said. “Is there science to say you shouldn’t do it? Probably not but it’s my kid.”

But that prompted Senator Bill Cassidy, the committee chair, to jump in with the facts on the deadly and incurable disease.

“For the record, if a child is born to a hepatitis B mother, that child may have a 95 percent chance of becoming a chronic carrier,” the Louisiana Republican, a physician, said.

“And we vaccinate those people, nobody is against that,” interjected Paul. “That’s a very small percentage—95 percent of children don’t have a hepatitis B mom, and could they wait a while?”

“Again, for the record, if a mother’s hepatitis B status is known, then that can be delayed. But the problem is that a significant percentage of the time, the mother’s status is not known. If she’s positive, a vaccine on day one of life prevents chronic hepatitis B 95 percent of the time,” Cassidy retorted.

“So it really depends on the knowledge of the mother’s hepatitis B status, and when they used to just ‘okay we know the mother’s status,’ there were mothers who snuck through whose status was unknown,” Cassidy continued. “For the record, there is an absolute rationale for that.”

A crash between a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane late Wednesday elicited the first rift between official White House messaging and Donald Trump’s personal tirades.

Shortly after the accident occurred, the White House issued an official statement from Trump, projecting a restrained and presidential image of the MAGA leader, shaped with authority and sincerity of tone. It was, by all accounts, remarkably similar to an official release by any other executive branch leader.

“I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport,” Trump’s statement on official White House letterhead read. “May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”

But just a couple of hours later, a more familiar and uncensored version of Trump was back online with a flurry of questions that only stoked the confusing situation.

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport,” the forty-seventh president wrote on Truth Social overnight. “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!!!”

That was, obviously, not kosher with the White House. Shortly afterward, Trump shared the White House version of the post on his page as well.

The pair of aircraft collided just outside of Reagan National Airport just outside of Washington. The plane, a Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet operated by a subsidiary of American Airlines, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members at the time of the crash, according to American Airlines CEO Robert Isom.

Critics have pointed to an executive order–initiated federal hiring freeze as a potential tension point for the Federal Aviation Administration, at a time when the vast majority of the country’s air traffic control sites are understaffed.

It is currently not clear whether the FAA was directly affected by the order, which provided allowances for roles described as “public safety professionals.”

After marketing himself as the peacemaker president, Donald Trump sure seems set on starting some new wars. 

During an interview on Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime Wednesday night, Trump’s unqualified Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth spoke about the president’s outlandish designs to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal—leaving the door open for military intervention in both cases.  

“Is the Defense Department ready for Panama, because it seems like Panama is not really playing ball?” Watters asked. “Do you have a message for the Panamanians?”

“We’ll see,” Hegseth replied. “The president has been clear about the fact that there’s a neutrality treaty as it pertains to the Panama Canal, and if they don’t allow for free and unfettered access that can’t be shut down by other countries, then we have the right—we retain the right—to do what is necessary to make sure there is free navigation in the Panama Canal.

“President Trump has said that will be the case. The Defense Department is prepared—so I don’t want to get ahead of what we may or may not do. Strategic uncertainty is an important thing,” Hegseth said. “But we will have freedom of navigation in the Panama Canal, whether that involves the Defense Department or not.”

As Hegseth spoke, the Fox News chyron read, “‘All Options on the Table’ to Take Panama Canal.”

Hegseth had a similarly vague answer when asked about Trump’s plans for Greenland, but this one was so effusive about the president that it ended up just sounding like nonsense.

“We’re hearing rumors that Denmark’s now spending $2 billion on additional defense and France is considering sending troops,” Watters said. “Are our allies really going to do that?”

“I don’t think so, Jesse,” Hegseth said. “The president recognizes how strategically significant Greenland is, even if other people didn’t for a very long time! So now, those countries who were supposed to be charged with protecting it, making sure Chinese interests aren’t there, are suddenly flocking of interest because President Trump, as he has across the globe, has reshaped the game. 

“So, we’ll end up seeing what happens there. We understand how critical it is to the Arctic, how much the Chinese would love access to the minerals. So, stand by to stand by. We’re watching it, and we’ll see what happens.”

During his confirmation hearing earlier this month, when asked whether he would follow Trump’s outlandish orders to invade Greenland or Panama, Hegseth replied, “I will emphasize that President Trump received 77 million votes to be the lawful commander,” and declined to give details on “what orders the president would give to me in any context.”

“That sounds to me that you would contemplate such an order to basically invade Greenland, and take over the Panama Canal,” replied Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii. 

Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order that would defund schools that teach kids about “critical race theory” or gender.

The executive order “prohibits federal funding of the indoctrination of children which includes radical gender ideology and critical race theory in the classroom.” 

“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” Trump said on the campaign trail.  

Critical race theory is a basic historical analysis of the social dynamics of this country, and has been part of educational curriculums for years. Republicans have recently latched on to it as a touchstone in their culture war, alleging that it only serves to make white students feel sad and uncomfortable when presented with facts.

It is unclear how the Education Department will go about determining which public schools are CRT schools and which aren’t. 

Trump also goes after gender in his order, stating that local and federal officials should “file actions against teachers and school officials who sexually exploit minors or practice medicine without a license through ‘social transition’ practices.” 

The president has ordered all this before his education secretary and former WWE executive, Linda McMahon, has even had a confirmation hearing.