President Donald Trump has caused another raucous on social media as he bluntly ascertains that he’s an expert on wind turbines which he called windmills.
Trump made this misleading statement while, speaking to young conservatives in West Palm Beach, Florida, close to his winter retreat at Mar-a-Lago where he is spending the holidays.
President Trump: "I never understood wind, you know I know windmills very much. I've studied it better than anybody." pic.twitter.com/0U432SgNA2
— The Hill (@thehill) December 22, 2019
According to Trump, he has studied it better than anybody else he knows, stating that his knowledge on wind turbines surpasses that of everybody else.
The president further stressed his point stating:
I never understood the wind. You know, I know windmills very much. They’re noisy. They kill the birds. Do you want to see a bird graveyard? Go under a windmill someday. You’ll see more birds than you’ve ever seen in your life.
The president’s attack on wind is relatively not new, earlier this year he was ridiculed on social media for his claims that wind turbines destroyed property values and caused cancer from their noise.
Notably, Trump is known for bizarre rambling remarks on different issues. He has previously claimed he knows more about ISIS than his generals, and also claims to understand politicians better than anybody.
Analysis of Trumps Wind turbines speech
An analysis of Trump’s speech revealed that the president knows very little about wind turbines other than the fact that he’s against it.
According to Trump, they are made in China and Germany mostly, and very few are made in the United States. He further claims they manufacture tremendous fumes and gases are into the atmosphere.
However, a survey released by The Hill, researchers from the American Wind Energy Association contradicts Trumps claims stating that a typical wind project repays its carbon footprint in six months or less.
Meanwhile, the benefits of the devices can last for a typical lifespan of 20 to 25 years, a good investment no matter how you look at it.
Regarding Trump’s argument that wind turbines kill birds, it was revealed that the device kills approximately 234,012 birds in the US every year, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
But when compared, with collisions with glass buildings like the ones Trump himself has built, they kill 599,000,000 birds every year, 2,559 times more birds than turbines.
Trump an environmentalist
The president’s final words on the subject, before hailing himself as an environmentalist presiding over an environment in very good shape”, concerned the long-term aesthetics of wind turbines.
He finally noted:
Do you know what they don’t tell you about windmills? After 10 years they look like hell. They start to get tired, old, he said, lamenting that owners of ageing windmills not replacing them without government subsidies was a really terrible thing.
The implication of wind turbines on Trump’s education policies
A writer once commented that what happens education-wise under Donald Trump’s administration is unclear.
On the campaign trail, he has said a lot about schools and students that have not been turned into policy but there’s a hint about “shuttering the U.S. Education Department entirely”.
With Republicans controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, more decision-making power is likely to be transferred back to states and local governments.
Trump is likely to push what he’s called a “market-driven” approach to education, which should make Americans really nervous by his display of ineptitude during this particular speech about “windmills”.
