Like countless other Americans, I closely watched TV news coverage of the January 29 tragedy when the American Airlines plane and Army Blackhawk helicopter collided, killing everyone aboard both aircraft, the lives of 67 people gone in mere moments.

The news coverage was respectful, thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and as informative as possible. By the afternoon of January 30, no reason was known yet about why the collision occurred. The investigation had just barely begun.

Regardless, Donald Trump turned a January 30 press conference about the tragedy into shameful political messaging about how great he thinks he is and how he blames the tragedy on former presidents Biden and Obama, as well as diversity, equality and inclusion practices. (Click here for more info about DEI.)

Shifting the blame to political opponents and claiming the country is so terribly bad—and, oh, everyone knows that only I alone can fix it—are tactics unfortunately used too often by politicians, especially Trump.

The tactic is a tried-and-true marketing scam: If you tell people a lie often enough, they will start to believe it’s the truth.

Throughout U.S. history, politicians have relied on the marketing scam to varying degrees. Prior to Trump, Nixon was the record-breaking scammer-in-chief. During the 1970 midterm election, he tried to manipulate the public by falsely claiming a Democratic win would destroy our nation.

Nixon, however, pales in comparison to the master manipulator Trump. We’re seeing Trump’s manipulation right now, live on our television screens, as he follows the Project 2025 playbook aimed at destroying our government system and replacing it with an authoritarian leader—Trump. (Click here for more about Project 2025 and here to fact-check what the project says.)

Currently, Trump is repeating his message time and again that diversity, equality and inclusion are wicked ways that need to go away—and that his Democratic predecessors are to blame for every problem in America.

I seldom get riled up about politics and the stupid stuff politicians say. But in this case, where a president disrespects the dead and their surviving family members by overshadowing the tragedy with his own self-aggrandizement while falsely blaming his opponents…it’s too much to sit back and be quiet about. I hope you, the reader, feel the same.

Learn more:

• Associated Press: What Trump said at the press conference.
• New York Times: President Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under Trump’s Watch.
• Fox: What Trump said.
• Fox: Trump blasts DEI in wake of DC plane crash.
• Watch the entire press conference.