While Elon Musk has mercifully finally left the building—though not before getting literal billions of dollars in no-bid government contracts and other treats—Musk has rich acquaintances who still need sweet no-bid government contracts. So that’s why the Federal Aviation Administration will be giving up to $2.1 million of your tax dollars to Musk’s personal attorney, Alex Spiro, to investigate whether former President Joe Biden left some DEI inside the planes and that’s why they keep crashing.
This deal was actually set up in March, long before Musk’s departure, but apparently in secrecy, because that’s totally how the most transparent administration in history rolls. But The Atlantic got Spiro’s scope of work document, labeled privileged and confidential, because that is also totally how the most transparent administration in history rolls.
For roughly $2 million of your tax dollars, Spiro will put together a team of former federal prosecutors to figure out what DEI policies exist—okay, wait. Let’s stop there. Most people figure out what government policies exist by … looking at the policies, given that the federal government issues drafted-and-edited-to-death policies on literally everything, but especially anything related to hiring.
Not sure why you need a dude whose resume includes defending Musk’s sacred right to defame people as pedophiles or Tesla’s sacred right to not have to pay too much for racist harassment of a Black employee or X/Twitter’s sacred right to do mass layoffs to figure out what government policies exist.
Come to think of it, though, when you look at Spiro’s track record, he’s probably the perfect guy to produce what the administration wants: that DEI policies are in some way linked to the genuinely breathtaking number of airline safety incidents since Trump took office. It isn’t because Spiro has any particular background in government or airline safety. It’s because he’s morally flexible.
Someone familiar with the investigation told The Atlantic that Spiro’s team may be wrapping up soon. Oh, and it could possibly run more than $2.1 million, as Spiro’s scope of work says that each additional week beyond the initially anticipated 2-3 weeks would run another $200,000 to $300,000 and any additional interviews are another $10,000 to $15,000. But at least that initial $2.1 million includes $100,000 for Spiro’s team to do statistical analysis, a thing the government does not lack the ability to do on its own.
In fact, there are—or at least were, up until a few months ago—any number of government entities that would have the actual expertise to assess the effect of hiring policies, DEI-infested and otherwise, on aviation safety. There’s the inspector general for the Department of Transportation. Well, except that Trump illegally fired the DOT IG along with over a dozen others via brief emails right after taking office, despite the requirement that he provide Congress with 30 days’ notice.
Related | Trump gutted aviation safety committee days before National Airport crash
There’s also the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, tasked with providing recommendations on travel safety to the FAA, but Trump disbanded that just a few days before the fatal collision between an American Airlines passenger plane and a military helicopter. There are still existing FAA divisions like Safety Management, but given that the so-called Department of Government Efficiency indiscriminately fired hundreds of FAA employees, including people critical to air traffic control safety, who knows if that capacity still exists.
There is one DEI hire, a completely unqualified person who did not get their job in any way based on merit, a person who has flubbed disasters since the start, who Spiro should easily be able to locate: we’re talking about Mr. Road Rules, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. While planes have been falling out of the sky and running into each other on the runway, Duffy has refused to take responsibility. Instead, he’s tried blaming Biden for incidents that occurred months after Biden left office, doing infomercials for Tesla while planes were grounded due to staffing shortages, and being terrified of subways.
But Spiro wouldn’t have gotten the gig if he were willing to genuinely, thoroughly dig into this without fear or favor. Instead, he’s happy to take taxpayer money to do a job he’s not remotely qualified for, despite the existence of many qualified government employees. Looks like we found another DEI hire. Make sure to tell Trump.