Trump Won’t Commit to Doing Anything About Climate Change
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday refused to commit to taking any action to address the climate crisis.
Asked during the first 2024 presidential debate if he would take any action as president to slow the climate crisis, Trump first spoke about how police groups are supporting his campaign. Next, he falsely claimed that President Joe Biden had called African Americans “superpredators,” adding that Biden has “also done a horrible job for Hispanics.”
CNN gave Trump another opportunity to name any action he would take as president to slow the climate crisis.
“So I want absolutely immaculate clean water, and I want absolutely clean air,” Trump responded. “And we had it. We had H2O, we had the best numbers ever. And we did. We were using all forms of energy, all forms — everything. And yet, during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever — and my top environmental people gave me that statistic just before I walked on the stage. Actually, that is true.”
Trump has reportedly called on oil and gas executives to donate $1 billion to help fund his presidential campaign, and promised those executives a host of policy favors in return — including a rollback of Biden’s environmental regulations and faster corporate mergers.
Biden argued that Trump as president didn’t do “a damn thing for the environment,” and “wants to undo all that I’ve done.” He noted that Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord, which Trump then called “a rip off.”
Fossil fuel cash has been pouring into Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc. Last month, Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., and the oil and gas company Continental Resources, Inc. donated $1 million to the super PAC in April.