Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., stated earlier this month that “no president” has overseen more plane crashes in their first month in office than President Donald Trump, but data obtained by Fox News Digital reveals that there were actually more plane crashes during the same period under President Joe Biden. “No president has had more planes crash in their first month in office than Donald Trump,” Swalwell posted Feb. 17 on X, a comment viewed over 7 million times on X.
Data from the Department of Transportation, provided by a senior administration official, contradicts previous reports and indicates that there were more plane crashes during the first few weeks of Biden’s term. Swalwell posted about a small plane crash in Georgia that resulted in two fatalities. There were 55 aviation accidents in the U.S. between Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 21, 2021, and Feb. 17, 2021, compared to 35 during the same period under Trump. Globally, there were 91 aviation accidents during that time for Biden, while Trump saw 50 incidents during his first few weeks in office.
“Eric Swalwell is a habitual liar and fraud, who continues to beclown himself every single day because he suffers from a debilitating and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his brain,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. “As an elected official, he should actually tell the truth for once, but it’s understandable he’s incapable of that since he has Fang Fang on his mind all day.”
Swalwell told Fox News Digital that he was referring to commercial airliners, although his initial post referred to “planes.” “There have been two U.S. commercial airliner crashes, where people died or were seriously injured in Trump’s first month,” Swalwell said. “Please show me a president who had more in their first month.”
Several Democrats have blamed Trump for high-profile plane crashes in recent weeks, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who suggested that Trump’s cuts to the FAA were responsible for the Toronto crash, which caused serious injuries but no fatalities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back, noting that the “crash unfortunately took place in Canadian airspace, with Canadian air-traffic controllers overseeing it.” Leavitt also refuted the Democratic claim regarding Trump firing FAA officials.
“And the facts about the FAA are that no air-traffic controllers have been let go by Secretary Duffy or this new administration. In fact, Secretary Duffy has put great emphasis on hiring the best and the brightest air-traffic controllers who want to be part of the FAA,” Leavitt argued.