Pete Buttigieg, former transportation secretary and former South Bend mayor, called Trump's comments during today's press briefing "despicable."

President Donald Trump didn’t hold back when it came to sharing his thoughts during a news conference about the fatal collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter. During his briefing late Thursday morning on the D.

President Donald Trump slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for running the agency "into the ground" following the D.C. plane crash disaster.

"Despicable. As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying. We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch," Buttigieg wrote on X.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Trump on Thursday for his reaction to the devastating incident after Trump baselessly blamed the Biden administration’s policies for threatening air safety. Buttigieg called out the president for “lying” about the crash in a post on social media platform X.

In his first news conference since the aircraft collision over the Potomac River, President Donald Trump on Thursday implied that diversity, equity and inclusion programs could be the cause, although an investigation has only just begun into the fatal disaster.

Trump left more questions than answers in his expletive attacks on Democrats and diversity practices during Thursday's press conference.

Trump said he didn't know what caused the crash but "we have some very strong opinions and ideas."

Trump accused former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay cabinet member, of running his department “into the ground with his diversity."

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called President Donald Trump “despicable” after he blamed Buttigieg for Wednesday night’s collision between a commercial flight and a helicopter over Washington,

Pete Buttigieg criticized Donald Trump's handling of a fatal midair collision, highlighting his own safety record and calling for leadership instead of blame.