Trump’s Climate Lies And How To Respond

Trump lies a lot about climate action. Below are Trump’s most frequent climate lies and some quick facts to help you respond to the B.S.!

Want more? Get more info here about Trump’s lies, links to independent fact checks, and information about the threats from Trump’s rollbacks of public health protections.

• LIE: Trump is an environmentalist. (lol)
  • Fact: Trump has rolled back more than 100 environmental protections and sold off more public lands and waters than he has protected since taking office, making him the most anti-nature president in the history of the U.S.
  • Quick link: The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List

• LIE: The Green New Deal will bankrupt us.
  • Fact: Nope. The cost of ignoring climate action will bankrupt us. So far this year, the US has been hit by 16 billion-dollar climate disasters. This season’s Iowa storms were the costliest in history. More acres burned in California than ever before. Bold climate action, like the Green New Deal and Biden’s climate plan, is critical. It’s the only viable solution to averting the economic and environmental crumbling of our communities.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Costs

• LIE: “There’s no way of really understanding” or “the science doesn’t know” the connection between wildfires & climate change.
  • Fact: Classic climate denial from our Denier in Chief. Thirteen different government agencies published a report that warned of climate change’s impact on forests and the increasing risks of wildfires, yet Trump said: “I don’t believe it.” With both COVID-19 and climate change, we’ve seen over and over again how Trump’s denial of science costs lives. Climate change is real and is exacerbating wildfire season every single year.
  • Quick link: Trump Denies Reality and Ignores People Dying From Climate Fires In Blue States

• LIE: We have the cleanest air and cleanest water ever!
  • Fact: We wish. Trump and his allies put oil and coal lobbyists in charge of our air, water, and climate and they immediately went to work rolling back 100 environmental safeguards. Air pollution has gotten worse under Trump. And in August, the AP reported that thousands of oil & gas operations got the green light to pollute our air and water during the COVID-19 pandemic by Trump and his team.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Clean Air and Clean Water

• LIE: California needs to sweep/clean/vacuum its forest floors.
  • Fact: The record-breaking fires we’re seeing are showing us the costs of Trump’s climate denial. Large fires are occurring more often as a result of climate-driven rising temperatures, early snowmelt, dry conditions, and in some places, a history of poor forest management. The situation will only be worsened by the climate crisis. Fire season today is almost 20% longer than it was 35 years ago as a result of rising global temperatures, and experts say wildfire seasons will expand to cover more areas across the country. Despite the scientific evidence, Trump continues to offer “advice” rather than an aid to the communities being devastated by these wildfires.
  • Quick link: NASA: Longer, More Frequent Fire Seasons

• LIE: Wildfires are just about forest management. 
  • Fact: This is a lie. This record-breaking wildfire season isn’t just about forest management. This is what the climate crisis looks like. Climate change is making conditions hotter and drier, exacerbating fire season, and magnifying the devastating impacts of these wildfires. Every year, wildfire season gets longer and much, much worse. Donald Trump’s attempt to pin these fires on forest management alone is a lie and another climate denial tactic.
  • Quick link: The Hill: Oregon senator says Trump’s blame on ‘forest management’ for wildfires is ‘just a big and devastating lie’

• LIE: Wildfires are spreading because of arsonists, not climate change.
  • Fact: This is a lie meant to distract the American public from the dangers they are facing every and the real crisis at hand: the climate crisis. Climate change is making conditions hotter and drier, exacerbating fire season, and magnifying the devastating impacts of these wildfires.
  • Quick link: Climate Feedback: Western US wildfires are not the result of widespread arson

• LIE: Trump has invested in “America’s Great Outdoors.”
  • Fact: Trump is the most anti-nature president in the history of the U.S. and the only president to have removed more public lands than he protected. When it comes to Trump, our national parks are treasures to be sold out and decimated by oil, gas, and coal companies.
  • Quick link: Climate Power 2020: Trump’s Real Record On Public Lands

• LIE: Biden’s climate plan will kill jobs.
  • Fact: Joe Biden has a plan to invest $2 trillion to create millions of jobs and make us carbon-neutral by 2050. Clean energy is the fastest growing industry in America, and clean energy jobs pay well above the national average, have good benefits, and can’t be outsourced to other countries. Meanwhile, Trump’s denial of COVID-19 has cost 40 million American jobs, including 1.1 million clean energy jobs.
  • Get more info here: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Jobs

• LIE: The radical left will kill your cows, end air travel, and ban hamburgers.
  • Fact: Uhhh fact check after fact check has proven these claims to be false. Trump and his oil and coal CEO buddies are just trying to stir up controversy to distract us from discussing real solutions – and protect their own profits.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies With Distractions About Airplanes, Buildings, and Cows

• LIE: Climate action (and the Green New Deal! and the Paris Agreement) will cost us trillions of dollars.
  • Fact: Donald Trump is lying! Remaining in the Paris agreement would save the U.S. over half a trillion dollars annually while doing nothing on climate change comes at an annual cost of $698.77 billion.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About The Paris Climate Agreement

• LIE: Renewable energy will leave us without power.
  • Fact: Nope. Donald Trump is lying to scare the public and distract you from the facts. Experts agree that renewable energy is not to blame for any of the blackouts in California, even though Trump likes to pretend it is. In fact, many studies show renewables actually increase grid reliability, and the U.S. military relies heavily on solar energy specifically because it creates “a resilient energy environment.”
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Wind and Renewable Energy

• LIE: China is trying to harm the US economy and they’re not taking any action.
  • Fact: Well, no. This is another distraction from Donald Trump to try to change the subject and blame his failures on China. And China is actually taking action: they just announced an ambitious climate goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. We’re falling behind the world on climate action and clean energy under Donald Trump.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Global Climate Leadership

• LIE: Biden will abolish American energy and jobs.
  • Fact: Independent fact-checkers say these claims are simply “false.” Joe Biden does not support a ban on oil, coal, and natural gas, or a ban on fracking. He supports common-sense safeguards to protect our water from contamination by toxic chemicals and investing in clean energy to combat climate change and create 10 million good-paying jobs across the country.
  • Quick link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies about Energy and Fracking

• LIE: Joe Biden wants to get rid of windows (?)
  • Fact: Joe Biden has a plan to create 1 million jobs upgrading 4 million buildings and weatherizing 2 million homes over 4 years. PolitiFact called Trump’s attack on energy-efficient buildings as “False,” noting “Biden’s task force document doesn’t mention windows at all.” and pointing out that “buildings with windows can have net-zero emissions.” CNN also called this attack “nonsense,” as the most energy-efficient buildings in the U.S. all have a large number of windows.
  • Quick link: PolitiFact: Trump said Biden wants to mandate net-zero emission buildings and get rid of windows. He’s wrong

• LIE: We’re going to plant a billion… or a trillion… trees.
  • Fact: Yes, planting trees is great, but Trump is greenwashing his polluter-ridden agenda with this lie. This is the latest attempt from Trump to distract voters from four years of destructive climate policies, including removing millions of acres of public lands from protection and rolling back more than 100 environmental protections. Not only that, but at the same time that Trump is bragging about planting trees, he’s trying to remove protections for nine million acres in the Tongass National Forest.  
  • Quick link: Trump’s Energy Policies Put Alaska in the Climate Crosshairs

• LIE: Trump “didn’t really” roll back clean car standards.
  • Fact: This is a flat out lie. Trump rolled back the hugely popular clean car standards thanks to a lobbying campaign backed by Big Oil. Many of the car companies even derided the Trump rollback. The reality is that the clean car standards would cut carbon pollution and save Americans money at the pump. According to the administration’s own analysis, the rollback will cost more money than it saves, by as much as $22 billion. 
  • Quick Link: Trump’s clean cars rollback will cost taxpayers billions and worsen air pollution.

• LIE: Fighting climate change will make us uncompetitive with China and the rest of the world.
  • Fact: One estimate found that sticking to the Paris Climate Agreement would create 24 million new jobs around the world by 2030, and other countries got the message while the United States risks falling behind in the growing green economy. China and Europe are already committing to massive investments in developing new clean energy technologies and dominating emerging industries like electric vehicles. The European Union set aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets, committing to an economic recovery plan that focuses on green jobs. Even China recently pledged to become carbon neutral by the year 2060 and endorsed $1.4 trillion in spending over the next 5 years on low-carbon technologies and green infrastructure.
  • Quick Link: Be Ready With The Facts When Trump Lies About Global Leadership