I was merely thinking more in terms of Trump complaining about, villifying, and blaming the Biden admin for a program that he not only let run through his term but that he possibly initiated.
I agree 100% that DEI is not a problem, especially in the FAA where, as you say, the training is extremely demanding and it's a meritocracy. If you get through that training, you're good.
Some context re: DEI and ATC, as you say, is important imho. Whether minority applicants were being favored over white males or not becomes less relevant once we acknowledge that the FAA cannot simply go out and hire as many controller trainees as it wants to or needs to at a given time. Like every other agency, they have budget constraints set by politicians. I myself took the ATC test in the 90s and despite scoring 100% on my first try, I was never hired. My mentor who was a high-ranking ATC in Houston at IAH said diversity hiring contributed to me not being hired, but stressed that the applicants who were being hired also scored as highly as I did. Did I like not being hired? No, but I really have no problem with someone else getting 'my' spot if they also scored well on the exam, and I know what the training environment for that job is like. It's extremely intense, as is the job.