Trump gives rambling description of ‘nuclear warming’ as he claims to be an environmentalist – The Independent
Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet
Get our free Climate email
Donald Trump has claimed to be an environmentalist and warned against “nuclear warming” in an interview to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The former president, without giving any evidence to back up his claims, used the term “nuclear warming” and said it was the world’s biggest challenge – far greater than “global warming”.
“When I listen to people talk about global warming that the ocean will rise in the next 300 years by 1/8th of an inch and they talk about how this is our problem. Our big problem is nuclear warming but nobody even talks about it,” he said in the interview that aired on Tuesday night.
“The environmentalists talk about all this nonsense in many cases. I’ve become a environmentalist also, I guess in my own way because i have done a good job with the environment.”
“Nobody talks about nuclear… the problem… the biggest problem we have in the whole world… it’s not global warming, it’s nuclear warming,” he said.
“And all it takes is one mad man and you’re going to have a problem, the likes of which the world has never seen.”
Mr Trump’s new comments come after he highlighted, in recent months, new ways to deny the climate crisis ahead of his bid to run for president again in 2024.
The former president has consistently denied the science behind climate change.
He has also earlier dubbed himself as an “environmentalist” despite overturning several environmental regulations during his stint as president.
In October last year, he claimed rising sea levels would create more “oceanfront property”.
“The world is going to be destroyed because the oceans are going to rise 1/100 of an inch within the next 300 years,” he had claimed in a mocking tone. “It’s going to kill everybody.”
“It’s going to create more oceanfront property. That’s what it’s going to do.”
Prior to that he had made similar comments last September at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.
In December, the former president asked “Whatever happened to Global Warming?” on Truth Social, in the aftermath of a devastating winter storm that left dozens dead in Western New York.
