Trump's War on Windmills and The Truth

At Best He’s Crazy. At Worst He’s A Psychopath.

There's something deeply mortifying about watching our unAmerican president fabricate environmental catastrophes in real time to foreign leaders. Donald Trump's latest performance—delivered straight-faced to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European officials—wasn't just another round of his Greatest Windmill Hits. It was a masterclass in how American credibility dies by a thousand not even imaginative lies.

Picture the scene: Trump, fresh from his Scottish golf course where nine wind turbines apparently offend his aesthetic sensibilities, lecturing European leaders about how windmills are "ruining their countries." One can only imagine von der Leyen's poker face as she absorbed this intelligence from the American president. Here was someone who represents a nation that helped write the global climate playbook, earnestly warning Europeans about the dangers of the very technology that's powering their energy independence.

The sheer audacity of the lies was br…