If you’ve spent any time on Twitter in the past week, you may have already seen the conventional wisdom on the left that the Ohio train derailment was Donald Trump’s fault. Specifically, many on the left have pointed to Trump’s rollback of some regulations as the key point in this disaster. Let’s look at a few examples.
Ohio Gov Mike DeWine was the one who ordered the chemicals from the train derailment to be SET ON FIRE
Trump was the one who KILLED Obama’s stricter limits on toxins
GOP owns this clusterfuck
They own the illnesses & deaths that’ll ensue
MFers don’t you dare put this on Biden
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) February 15, 2023
Some of the accusations specifically mention a regulation about the brakes on trains.
If you are blaming the East Palestine, Ohio train catastrophe on Pete Buttigieg or Biden, you are dead wrong. It may actually be Trump's fault. Let me explain.
– Trump literally rescinded Obama's requirement that trains carrying hazardous flammable materials must have ECP… https://t.co/EQRoMIQhAZ
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 15, 2023
Pretty much pic.twitter.com/Ms8TLP7wcV
— Grab em by the PAB (@ChangeTheSyst14) February 15, 2023
Leading this charge lately has been the group Occupy Democrats:
BREAKING: The Biden White House slams Trump and Republicans for laying the "groundwork" that resulted in the East Palestine train derailment by shredding regulations — says they “owe East Palestine an apology for selling them out to rail industry lobbyists." RT IF YOU AGREE!
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) February 22, 2023
BREAKING: Fox News shocks their viewers by admitting that train safety regulations were "changed under Trump" when he "dismantled" an Obama-era rule to save money for corporations — setting the stage for the hazardous derailment in East Palestine. RT IF YOU BLAME DONALD TRUMP!
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) February 23, 2023
It is true that under Trump some regulations relating to train brakes and other issues were rolled back. Occupy Democrats saw this as absolute proof Trump was to blame.
BREAKING: Republicans launch a shameful witch with a "probe" into Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's handling of the East Palestine train derailment — in reality, it was caused by Trump repealing regulations, which even Fox News admits. RT IF YOU STAND WITH SECRETARY PETE!
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) February 24, 2023
The Lincoln Project put out a vide which is making the same argument as Occupy Democrats: Trump rolled back, “regulations that would have kept us safe from the Norfolk Southern railway accident.”
Today Donald Trump is traveling to East Palestine, Ohio to do what he does best – campaign off of American suffering. Journalists, ask one question today: “Why did he end the railroad regulations?” pic.twitter.com/nciaHs4OoZ
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 22, 2023
And on and on it goes:
Let’s not forget that it was Trump who rolled back important train safety regulations. We fought against those changes, and his grandstanding now in Ohio is nauseating. People rightfully expect safety.
Roll back the tape… https://t.co/jNJuyWgJ6W
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) February 24, 2023
After overturning the Obama-era safety regulations that could have prevented the disaster, Donald Trump travels to East Palestine, Ohio, to market his own branded "Trump Water," which may be 13 years old, and Tucker Carlson applauds him for it.
You can't make this stuff up.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) February 23, 2023
The train accident in Ohio should be called the trump train crash since his administration repealed and opposed regulations that could’ve prevented this accident. #trumpTrainCrash #EastPalenstine https://t.co/oLXm6eS1YU
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) February 22, 2023
And finally here’s Joy Reid and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg agreeing that’s what happened here.
Trump being welcomed in East Palestine, Ohio is disconcerting because by now everyone should recognize that it was Trumps rolling back railway safety regulations and as well as gutting the EPA that does shoulder blame along with Norfolk-Southern Railway pic.twitter.com/wNfk60cKxW
— Sharone Wellington-deAnda (@DeandaSharone) February 24, 2023
I’m really just selecting the very tip of the iceberg here. For every high profile leftist making this case, there are a 1,000 folks with low follower counts saying the same thing. Unfortunately for them, there’s still no evidence the deregulation under former president Trump had anything to do with the accident.
We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, said the Norfolk Southern crew received an alert about an overheated wheel bearing and was trying to slow the train before it came off the tracks.
From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident.
What about the brakes? Didn’t that cause the derailment? The chair of the NTSB has been begging people not to spread this claim since Feb 16: “PLEASE STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION.”
Some are saying the ECP (electronically controlled pneumatic) brake rule, if implemented, would’ve prevented this derailment. FALSE – here’s why…
— Jennifer Homendy (@JenniferHomendy) February 17, 2023
This means even if the rule had gone into effect, this train wouldn't have had ECP brakes.
— Jennifer Homendy (@JenniferHomendy) February 17, 2023
Isn’t it odd that the Sec. of Transportation is spreading the very disinformation that the NTSB has warned people against spreading? There was also a regulation about having two crew members per train which was rolled back under Trump. Was that relevant?
After the Lac-Megantic crash, which had only one crew member on the train, the Obama administration in 2016 proposed a rule to require two-person crews on all trains. The Trump administration withdrew the proposal in 2019, saying “no direct conclusions could be drawn about train crew staffing’s safety impact” on Lac-Megantic or other accidents. The Biden administration has said it will seek to revive the rule.
Relevance to derailment: None. The 149-car train that derailed had two crew members plus a trainee on board.
There’s more but you can click here to read the whole thing. The bottom line, as the headline makes clear is “So far, Trump’s rollback of regulations can’t be blamed for Ohio train wreck.” The “so far” is there because the investigation isn’t over but also I suspect because the left is out over its skis on this one and people aren’t going to like this fact check.
Update: I should mention that PolitiFact did it’s usual bass-ackward job on this. They fact-checked the claim by Occupy Democrats that regulations were rolled back under Trump and found that to be “Mostly True.“
“Obama imposed stricter rules on trains carrying toxins. Trump killed them,” claimed a Feb. 15 Facebook post from Occupy Democrats, a liberal advocacy group. The post includes an image from the aftermath of the train derailment in Ohio.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
An Occupy Democrats spokesperson told PolitiFact this post was referring to changes to a rule about braking systems for high-hazard flammable unit trains.
PolitiFact looked into this rule change and found the claim to be largely accurate.
However, PolitFact also admitted that there’s no evidence those regulations would have mattered in this accident:
However, even if this safety rule had still been in effect, it would not have applied to the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, because it was not categorized as a high-hazard cargo train.
Although the Norfolk Southern train contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, it did not meet the Department of Transportation’s narrow definition of a high-hazard flammable unit train in that it didn’t have at least 70 cars containing flammable materials, such as crude oil or ethanol. The chemicals it was carrying fall into a different classification not included in this definition.
The National Transportation Safety Board told PolitiFact that the Norfolk Southern train was categorized as a “general merchandise” train and it used “pneumatic brakes,” or conventional air brakes.
So PolitiFact has managed to side with Occupy Democrats despite the obviously bogus implication made by the group that the regulatory rollback and the derailment were connected.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member