In
early June, two news organizations dug up documented but long-forgotten tidbits
on Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again relationship with the environment.
And
the incompatibility of the findings is emblematic of his long, complicated
relationship with reality.
Presumably
donning a gas mask for the chore before him, Max Rosenthal of Mother
Jones read Trump’s 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback.
The
Donald, it seems, regarded concerns over asbestos as a Mafia-inspired
conspiracy. The fire-proofing mineral, he said, just “got a
bad rap” and is “100 percent safe, once applied.” The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, apparently in cahoots with the Mob, differed, saying
there was “no safe level” of asbestos exposure.
In
the late 90’s, Trump agreed to an undisclosed settlement with undocumented
construction workers at his New York City Trump Tower site, who alleged they
worked in “choking clouds of asbestos dust without protective equipment.”
Writing
in Grist, Ben Adler and Rebecca Leber unearthed Trump’s support of
a call for action on the eve of the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit. The full-page New York Times ad warned
“if we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be
catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”
Joining
Trump and three of his children as signers were some of the least Trump-like
business leaders in America: Vermont ice cream magnates Ben and Jerry,
philanthropist Jeff Skoll, Martha Stewart, Deepak Chopra. The founders of
Patagonia, Chipotle, Seventh Generation, Aveda, and yes, the creators of Barney
the Dinosaur and the Blue Man Group.
As a special added irony, Graydon
Carter, a legendary Trump tormentor through relentless and
mirthful taunting in Spy Magazine, is joined with
the Donald therein.
Just
two months after joining the call to action, Trump cited the unusually snowy
2010 winter in the Northeast as the reason to strip Al Gore of
his shared Nobel Peace Prize. “China, Japan and India are laughing
at America’s stupidity,” he told the membership of his Trump National Golf Club
outside New York City.
Time
and again, the fairways of Trump’s far-flung golf empire have been the setting
for his assaults on the Greens. Later in 2010 at another Trump
National Golf Course (he owns 17 golf resorts worldwide)
in Loudon County, Virginia, Trump ordered a mile-long stretch of Potomac River
shoreline deforested so that his golfers could have a better
view of the river.
More than 400 mature trees disappeared, removing habitat for
bald eagles and migratory birds. In their place, tree stumps and an eroding
riverbank.
The
Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey, was cited by the state’s
environment agency in 2011 for tree removal and wetlands damage. The course is
also in a partnership with New Jersey Audubon and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service on a habitat
restoration project.
“I
have a great environmental record,” said the Donald as his golf course
controversies swirled. “I have a record that, in my opinion, everybody would
love.”
Except, perhaps for employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, which Trump has vowed to eliminate.
Except that he mistakenly called the EPA the “Department of Environmental
Protection,” which is the name of the state agency that slapped his New Jersey
course.
About
30 miles to the east of Bedminster lies the broken dream of yet another Trump
golf course. EnCap was an ambitious plan to convert 1,330 acres of the
Hackensack Meadowlands—an estuary five miles from Times Square better known as
the final resting place for both metro New York’s trash and Mafia victims—into
thousands of units of housing, office space and a world class golf course.
When the original investors ran into financial trouble and accusations of
organized crime involvement, Trump rode in to rescue EnCap (he
was not implicated in the alleged Mob ties, and an investigation by then-US
Attorney Chris Christie was inconclusive).
What
ensued was a bitter two-year battle between Trump and state and local leaders,
including future EPA chief Lisa Jackson, then in charge of NJDEP. “In my
opinion you don’t put around four billion tons of housing on a landfill which
is on top of a marsh,” said John Hipp, Republican mayor of the town of
Rutherford.
"I have a great environmental record. I have a record that, in my opinion, everybody would love." Donald Trump
Trump
pressed to increase the housing units on the land, while low-balling the costs
to make the polluted land habitable. In 2008, New Jersey pulled the plug,
losing $50 million on the abortive deal.
And Trump never saw his asking price
of $12 million for the honor of using the name "Trump" on the
project.
With
the exception of the 2009 New York Times ad, Trump has been
unusually consistent in his tweets and public pronouncements on climate change,
calling it “pseudoscience,” a Chinese-led “hoax,” and on a particularly snowy
day, “bullshit.”
But
when erosion at his seaside Trump International Golf Links in County Clare,
Ireland, became a threat, Trump petitioned to build a wall—a
seawall, to protect the links from “global warming and its effects.”
One
more golf item before we hit the clubhouse: In 2012, Trump built what he has
called “the world’s greatest golf course” after obtaining permission to plow
through protected dunes on the Scottish coast near Aberdeen.
Altering the
beloved dunes was tolerable for most locals, though, since Trump promised 6,000
jobs with the opening of his golf links and resort.
They even gave Trump a pass
when he described the neighboring ancient farm buildings as a “slum” and looked
the other way when the stiff Aberdeenshire winds made the Donald’s epic
coiffure start breakdancing.
But
those same winds created a threat Trump could not accept. A proposal for 23 wind turbines,
within sight of the Trump resort, prompted the kinds of Trumpian outbursts that
have become routine in this year’s election campaign.
Trump, like William Wallace
before him, was “fighting for the benefit of Scotland.” First Minister Alex
Salmond, who supported the windfarm, would be “known for centuries as the man
who destroyed Scotland.”
Trump
also branded the wind menace as potentially the worst thing that ever happened
to Scotland. (The sacking of Scotland by the Vikings in 790, the Great Plague
of 1645, the Famine of the 1840’s and the 1988 Lockerbie terrorism disaster be
damned.)
Losing
a third and final round in the UK’s Supreme Court last December, Trump has had
little to say about the windfarm since. But Alex Salmond cheerfully tore a
phrase from the Trump playbook, calling him a “three time loser.”
Also lost? All but 200 of those promised 6,000 jobs.
Back
to the iconic hair for a moment. On several occasions in the last five years,
Trump has launched into an extended riff on his understanding of hairspray and
the ozone layer.
In a campaign speech in
May, he repeated the tirade to a Charleston, West Virginia, audience.
Hairspray, he said, “Used to be real good. Today, you put the hairspray
on, it’s good for 12 minutes.”
Blaming
regulations that restricted aerosols known to damage the Earth’s ozone layer,
Trump continued. “So if I take hairspray, and if I spray it in my apartment,
which is all sealed, you’re telling me that affects the ozone layer? I say no
way folks, no way.”*
The
audience in America’s most iconic coal mining state approved. Even more so when
Trump made non-specific promises to bring the coal industry back to its former
glory. But Trump has been equally fond of the fracking industry, widely
blamed/credited with breaking Big Coal’s back.
And even coal industry zealots
like Bob Murray,
the outspoken boss of Murray Energy, have marked The Donald as out to lunch on
this. Murray added that when he asked the pro-natural-gas Trump about LNG, the
potential Commander-in-Chief said “What’s LNG?”
In
contemporary America, climate denial and anti-regulatory tirades are a dime a
dozen. But the one Trump utterance that truly knocked me off my chair was this
one.
Speaking to a rally in Fresno in late May he looked Californians in the
eye and told them that their four year long drought does not exist.
“They don’t
understand – nobody understands it. There is no drought. They turn the
water out into the ocean,” all to protect “a certain kind of three-inch fish.”
Just
wow.
He
was apparently referring to the refusal by state and federal officials to
virtually drain some Central Valley streams by diverting water to farmers and
ranchers stricken by the non-drought. Federal law prohibits such diversions if
they substantially harm wildlife, including the endangered Delta smelt.
California
has had the driest four-year period in its history, and while El Niño rains
brought some temporary relief, the lack of rainfall is still an unfolding
disaster, including in smelt-free parts of the state. Abandoned orchards,
parched cattle, vanished snowpack, drained reservoirs and municipal water
restrictions aside, 1.1 million Californians pulled Trump’s lever in the June 6
primary.
Oh,
there’s one more golf thing. If by chance Mr. Trump is wrong about climate
change being a hoax created by China, scratch at least three of his golf course
off the list. His seaside, sea-level courses in Miami, Palm Beach and Jupiter,
Florida, will all be underwater and offshore.
*Bonus hairspray information: According to the Houston Chronicle, Trump uses “CHI Helmet Head Extra Firm Hair Spray,” developed and sold by Palestinian immigrant Farouk Shami. Mr. Shami halted his company’s sponsorship of Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant after Trump’s anti-Islamic comments late last year, which Trump doubled down on after the Orlando massacre.
The Daily Climate
is an independent, foundation-funded news service covering energy, the
environment and climate change. Find us on Twitter @TheDailyClimate or
email editor Brian Bienkowski at bbienkowski [at] EHN.org
Photo
credits: Trump National Golf Club, Washington D.C. (Credit: Sandy Kemsley);
Donald Trump (Credit: Gage Skidmore);
New Jersey Meadowlands (Credit: proteinbiochemist);
Wind rally in Edinburgh (Credit: Ric Lander); Drought
graphic (Credit: University of
Nebraska)