As the investigation into last Wednesday’s air disaster in Washington was still getting underway, President Trump didn’t bother to wait for actual evidence to figure out what was to blame: “DEI.”

That’s shorthand, in case you haven’t heard, for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a controversial hiring practice that has become a one-size-fits-all bludgeon for the president and his allies to use against Democrats — even when facts don’t support them.

Such partisan eagerness to demonize DEI for every disaster reminds me of the liberal critics whom former United Nations ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, a Ronald Reagan appointee, labeled the “blame America first” crowd for their habitual response to foreign policy challenges.

Now Trump, with his notoriously casual regard for inconvenient facts, habitually responds to disasters by blaming DEI first.

We saw that as wildfires recently burned through the hills of Los Angeles and internet trolls blamed DEI, apparently because Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is Black and the city’s fire chief, Kristin Crowley, a 22-year veteran of the department, is the first woman and openly queer person to lead it.

Among the trolls beating that bogus drum was Trump’s billionaire buddy Elon Musk, who shared screenshots of the fires and wild accusations like “DEI means people DIE.”

Similarly, waves of trolls blamed the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on “Baltimore’s DEI mayor,” Mayor Brandon Scott, who happens to be Black, as soon as he appeared on TV to update the public.

The X account of something called the Young Conservative Federation posted a picture of a Black woman, Karenthia Barber, who served as a port commissioner. Her bio listed her experience in DEI audits and consulting.

That led Phil Lyman, a Republican and gubernatorial candidate in faraway Utah, to chime in with an attack on Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore, who also, yes, happens to be Black.

Lyman wrote on X: “This is what happens when you have governors who prioritize diversity over the well-being and security of citizens.”

The allegation might have risen above ignorant innuendo if Lyman had tried to show any evidence that the governor, the mayor or the port commissioner had anything to do with the container ship striking the bridge.

But that’s the exciting life DEI has taken on in the MAGA imagination. It’s no longer merely a set of principles in the realm of hiring and workplace relations. It now elects “diverse” agents of destruction into government.

In another twist to the craziness, a trans woman wrongly named as one of the pilots in this week’s deadly air collision urged the public to spread the word on how fake this news really was.

“Some craziness has happened on the internet and I’m being named as one of the pilots of the DC crash,” posted Jo Ellis, a chief warrant officer 2 who is a UH60 Black Hawk pilot for the Virginia National Guard. “It’s insulting to the victims and families of those lost and they deserve better than this BS from the bots and trolls of the internet.”

I remember how diversity policies began in the 1960s when the racially inflamed violence and politics of the decade spread to ranks of the military. I had been drafted, and I witnessed some of the tensions firsthand, as well as a services-wide effort to weed out racial discrimination.

Anti-discrimination efforts resulted in some excellent promotions in the U.S. armed forces. Many excellent African Americans and others who had been turned down for promotions got a second look. One of them was Colin Powell, who would later rise to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and beyond, and served as the first Black secretary of state.

But that’s not to say that I don’t have questions about DEI policies, just as many other practically minded people on the right and the left, or in between.

It’s no simple matter to fight discrimination against women and minorities without swinging too far into the “reverse discrimination” that creates unfair outcomes as well.

The Trump administration is correct to eliminate any program that gives an unfair advantage to one group at the expense of another. Merit matters. Or at least it should.

But, as Team Trump rolls in with its reforms, it must be cautious about dumping programs that undermine the value of merit while also protecting legitimate policies that offer protection against unfair discrimination and that open doors to opportunity.

To do that takes more than slogans. DEI may seem like a pain, but everyone wants fairness. That’s a goal worth working for. Even when we fall short, that means we should reach higher.