United's CEO Promised Diverse Hiring in 2021. By 2025, He Told Stephen Miller's Wife He Hires on Merit — a Viral Post Made Millions Think He Said It Yesterday

On March 9, Libs of TikTok, the conservative social media account known for driving viral outrage cycles, posted a side-by-side video to its nearly 5 million followers on X. On one side, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby tells

he hires based on merit. On the other, Kirby tells Axios he's committed to making 50 percent of the airline's pilot training classes women or people of color. Same CEO. Two completely different messages. Three million views in six hours.

Katie Miller"United CEO Scott Kirby just claimed he only hires based on merit," the post read. "@united thinks we will forget. The internet is forever!"

It's a clean hit. One problem: none of it is new.

United CEO Scott Kirby just claimed he only hires based on merit

Here’s a clip of him saying he takes race and gender into account when hiring and complains that there’s too many White males in the airline industry.

.

[@united]thinks we will forget.The internet is forever!

[pic.twitter.com/3XdJgGFwvY]— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)

[March 9, 2026]

The word 'just' is doing all the heavy lifting

The merit clip comes from the Katie Miller Podcast, Episode 15 — published on November 18, 2025. That's nearly four months ago. The Axios interview where Kirby championed diversity targets aired in 2021. Neither clip surfaced this week, this month, or even this year.

Katie Miller is the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, one of the administration's most prominent critics of DEI. During the episode, Kirby actually referenced speaking with her husband earlier that day. So the CEO of the country's largest airline sat down with a host directly connected to the Trump White House, name-dropped her husband, and talked about hiring on merit — all on the record, all in November. FlyerTalk, an aviation forum where frequent flyers dissect every word airline executives say, called it a "great answer" delivered "without being political."

It's also worth noting what didn't happen on March 9. Kirby didn't give a new interview. United didn't announce a hiring policy. There was no news event involving the airline or its CEO. The post didn't surface in response to anything — it just appeared, built from clips that were months and years old, framed with a word that made them feel like today's news.

The post doesn't mention any of that context. It doesn't have to. Three million people saw it and moved on.

Kirby's shift in language didn't happen in a vacuum

There is a real contradiction in Scott Kirby's public statements, and it tracks directly with a shift in the political landscape.

In 2021, Kirby told Axios that United had committed to ensuring half of its Aviate Academy classes would be women or people of color. Only 19 percent of the airline's pilots met that description at the time, which he called the highest rate in the industry.

Then Donald Trump returned to office. In January 2025, the president signed an executive order requiring the FAA to immediately halt all DEI initiatives. Companies across the country scrambled to respond. Delta said it would remain "steadfast." Others dissolved their programs entirely.

President Trump announces that, “DEI is de*d.”

Lives will be saved.

[pic.twitter.com/GXimg2mRxE]— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl)

[January 31, 2025]

Kirby threaded the needle. On a fourth-quarter earnings call weeks after the order, he told investors United would "continue to hire based on merit" and pointed to 600,000 applications for fewer than 10,000 positions as evidence the airline could be "incredibly selective." He didn't abandon the diversity commitment outright, but the language had unmistakably shifted. The November sit-down with Katie Miller continued that recalibration — this time in front of a conservative audience with direct ties to the administration driving the policy change.

Different rooms, different eras, different language. That tension is real and worth examining. But that's not what the Libs of TikTok post is doing.

This is the third time the same clips have gone viral

The first wave hit in January 2024. Libs of TikTok surfaced a video of Kirby performing in drag at a US Airways Halloween party from around 2011 — silver dress, blonde wig, Lady Gaga — and paired it with the same 2021 Axios clip. Millions of views. Riley Gaines weighed in. Elon Musk weighed in.

Btw this is the CEO of United

I’m not kidding

[https://t.co/Zm9gW0x5jg][pic.twitter.com/Y0WGHA1nPr]— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok)

[March 9, 2026]

The second wave came in early 2025, when Trump's DEI executive order gave the footage fresh political context.

Now it's March 2026. Same Axios clip. A four-month-old podcast episode repackaged with the word "just." And three million people engaged before anyone checked a date.

The outrage is real. The news isn't.

Kirby makes $33.9 million a year. He once told the Wall Street Journal he's never eaten a meal on his own airline's flights to Europe. A federal audit in February found the FAA lacks enough inspectors to adequately oversee United's maintenance. There are real questions to ask about how he runs the airline.

But a post that tells nearly 5 million followers a CEO "just claimed" something he said in November isn't asking questions. It's manufacturing a moment — and three million views suggest nobody's checking the receipt.