From 'Global Cooling' to 'Beautiful Coal': Trump's Surprising Climate Claims of 2025
In the past decade, Donald Trump has been at the forefront of US politics, making a barrage of unusual, misleading, or dubious assertions about the climate crisis. He famously called it a 'hoax'. This year, Trump has intensified his often questionable claims about the environment and how to deal with the threats to it. Here are five of the most startling claims that stood out in a year littered with lies and wild declarations.
Putting People Over Fish: Trump's administration prioritized the fate of an endangered, three-inch-long fish in California over the needs of nearby farmers and the fight against devastating wildfires. He called the fish 'an essentially worthless fish' and issued an executive order titled 'Putting people over fish' to divert water from the fish's habitat to people. Experts pointed out that the water would not aid the firefighting effort in LA, and the small amount of water provided to keep the ecosystem intact was overshadowed by larger forces like the climate crisis.
Wind Energy is 'Driving the Whales Crazy': Trump's first month in office included a bizarre tirade against offshore wind energy for its supposed impact on whales. He cited stranded whales in Massachusetts as proof that windmills were 'driving the whales crazy'. However, federal government scientists have rejected the idea that wind turbines are to blame, stating that there is no scientific evidence linking wind energy to whale deaths. The main threats to whales are entanglement in fishing nets, boat strikes, and altered prey behavior due to the climate crisis.
Clean, Beautiful Coal: Trump delivered a remarkable, often fact-free speech to the United Nations, claiming that climate change is a 'greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world'. He sought to directly rebrand coal as a clean power source, saying, 'I have a little standing order in the White House. Never use the word 'coal'. Only use the words 'clean, beautiful coal'.' However, coal is far from clean, emitting the dirtiest carbon when burned and giving off air pollutants that harm heart and lung health. Black lung disease, an affliction of many coalminers, was exacerbated by the Trump administration's cuts to miner health programs.
Global Cooling: Trump scoffed at the scientific reality of global heating, claiming that scientists had changed their minds from the planet cooling down. He cited 1920s and 1930s predictions of global cooling as proof. However, the world is heating up at the fastest rate in human history due to fossil fuel burning and deforestation. Scientists are unequivocal about this, and even in the 1920s and 1930s, there was an understanding of the greenhouse effect.
Climate Change Investigations: Trump announced new investigations related to the climate crisis, targeting those who have told the world about it. He called it a 'little conspiracy' and said, 'We have to investigate them immediately. They probably are being investigated.' It's unclear who 'they' are, but Trump pushed on, claiming that their policies produced disaster and the worst inflation in history. While the Trump administration has fired scientists and banned certain words, the reality remains that the world is warming up, and past projections have been generally accurate.
