Attack

 Trump, predictably, turned the crash last night into a political cudgel. To their credit, the Times was having none of it. Here are some facts: 

There was no director - even an acting one - of the FAA, after Trump and Musk forced out the incumbent. 

Trump gutted the aviation safety committee for being "DEI."

You have the strange "buyout" option for public workers - which would include air safety public servants.

Now, did any of those things cause the first major domestic air crash in 15 years? Let's concede that they likely didn't. The evisceration of public service is still in its infancy, and we can hope to strangle it in its crib.

To do so, Democrats have to "politicize the tragedy". Blame it on Trump and Musk's war on governmental functions. Suggest that RFK Jr is an airplane crash for public health. We haven't had an major airline tragedy in this country in a long time; the story will have some legs. 

Tie it to Trump.

Is it true? Who give a fuck! Trump ran on inflation being high when it was normal; Trump ran on rising crime when it was falling; Trump ran on rising illegal immigration when it was falling. If you try and fight Trump - a man with no sense even of what the truth is - with "facts" you are going to lose. Fight him on his turf. Make tendentious connections. Suggest as fact things that are contingent on future data.

Trump has to own every single dysfunction of the world, just as Biden had to own the inflation that came after Covid.