Trump: wind farms are a ‘con job'

Telegraph

6 days ago

President Donald Trump branded wind power a 'con job' after playing golf in Scotland, describing how turbines ruined the view from the 18th hole of his Turnberry course.
The president said wind farms spoiled the landscape and sucked in expensive subsidies in comments likely to complicate a meeting with Sir Keir Starmer on Monday.
'The whole thing is a con job. It's very expensive,' he added as he announced a trade deal with the EU. The deal includes the EU buying billions of dollars of American energy, including natural gas.
Mr Trump spent Sunday morning playing golf with his son Eric and club members before sitting down for crucial European trade talks.
'Today I'm playing the best course, I think, in the world, Turnberry,' he said, in front of a giant picture window looking out on its fairways, dunes and the sea beyond.
'It's probably the best course in the world. And I look over the horizon and I see nine windmills at the end of the 18th. I said, 'Isn't that a shame?''
Mr Trump's Scotland visit is centred around his two golf clubs. On Friday, engulfed in the Epstein scandal at home, he issued an eleventh-hour invitation to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, to come to his Ayrshire golf club to try to agree a trade deal before crippling tariffs come into force on August 1.
He announced a trade deal shortly after the meeting at Turnberry, and dismissed the idea the deal was a useful distraction from the Epstein accusations.
'We have reached a deal. It's a good deal for everybody,' he told reporters, confirming 15 per cent tariffs on all goods. Ms von der Leyen also hailed it as a 'good deal'.
Mr Trump's comments on wind energy, however, are likely to complicate Mr Trump's meeting on Monday with Sir Keir, who has staked Britain's future energy supply on wind.
In its manifesto last year, Labour promised to work with the private sector to double Britain's onshore wind power capacity by 2030.
That meant ending the de facto ban on new onshore wind farms in England and, by declaring them nationally significant infrastructure projects, stripping councils of their power to block giant onshore wind farm developments.
The policy, drawn up by Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, and condemned by critics as a 'power grab', cleared the way for a raft of new wind farms with turbines predicted to exceed 800ft in height.
In Scotland on Sunday, Mr Trump pushed back on any suggestion that his 'beautiful' morning of golf had put him in a good mood.
'I'm actually not in a great mood,' he said at the press conference with Ms von der Leyen, to laughter from his team.
Mr Trump may be on British soil, but he is meeting foreign leaders on home territory.
The vast ballroom at Turnberry was set out like the Oval Office, scene of so many televised showdowns.
The president took the seat on the right, just as he would at the White House, with his five advisers in seats beside him, arranged as if on the familiar couches, facing their counterparts no more than four feet away.
A small group of guests, including his sons Donald Jr and Eric, were seated to one side, with a close-up view of the spectacle.
But for all the important issues at stake, Mr Trump could not resist returning to golf and the presence of wind turbines.
He was visiting Turnberry for the first time since Kirk Hill wind farm began producing energy from eight turbines that rise more than 300 ft into the air.
'The whole thing is a con job,' he said. 'It's very expensive, and in all fairness, Germany tried it and wind doesn't work.'
He said it made no sense to subsidise energy projects such as wind farms.
'With energy, you make money, you don't lose money. But more important than that is it ruins the landscape,' he said. 'It kills the birds.'
He also said that 'windmills' were driving whales 'loco'.
Long-running battle over turbines
Mr Trump's hatred of turbines stems from a long-planning battle he had with Scottish authorities. He opposed plans for a major North Sea wind power development that he complained could be seen from his Aberdeenshire course but lost the case.
On Monday, Sir Keir is expected to push Mr Trump for his help in securing a ceasefire in Gaza.
The president promised more aid for Gaza but indicated that he had run out of patience with Hamas, accusing the terror group of toughening its line on returning the last remaining Israeli hostages.
'They don't want to give them back, and so Israel's going to have to make a decision,' he said.
His US negotiators left Qatar, which is mediating talks, on Thursday as talks collapsed.
In the press conference, Mr Trump also called Iran 'stupid' for continuing to enrich uranium in the wake of US air strikes on its nuclear facilities.
He said Iran had been 'beaten up very badly, for good reason'.
'I think Iran has been very nasty, with their words, with their mouth. I think they've been very nasty. They got the hell knocked out of them and I don't think they know it,' he added.
'You've just come out of something that's so bad and they talk about: we want to continue enrichment … How stupid can you be to say that?'