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

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer says former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg was the “worst cabinet pick” made by the Biden administration.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit back after President Trump criticized the Biden administration and diversity initiatives in the aftermath of a deadly midair collision outside

Vice President JD Vance, left, shakes hands with Sean Duffy after swearing him in as secretary of transportation as his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, holds the Bible in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Officials have not yet to formally establish the causes of the collision, and Trump himself acknowledged that it was too soon to draw conclusions as he encouraged the country to

Buttigieg, who was mayor of South Bend, Indiana, moved to his husband Chasten’s home state of Michigan in 2020 after losing to President Biden in the Democratic primary that same year.

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.

The collision happened around 9 p.m. when the PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jet was on approach to the airport. President Donald Trump said military helicopter shouldn’t have been flying same height as plane. "You had a confluence of bad decisions that were made," Trump said. "For some reason, there weren't adjustments made," Trump said.

Trump acknowledged it was too soon to draw conclusions but nonetheless moved to assign blame. Trump said he had no evidence to support his claims that diversity initiatives and hiring preferences played a role in the crash.