President Donald Trump turned the UN General Assembly into his personal circus last week, spewing climate denial, bizarre asides, and boasts that had social media rolling their eyes.
After decades of bedrock science showing the world is heating up at an alarming rate due to greenhouse gases released by manâs burning of fossil fuels, Trump stood before the world, lying and insisting that global warming is a âgreen scam.â
He called climate change “a con job” and said “countries will fail” if they don’t get away from the “green scam.” He also pushed nations to accept his worldview, claiming, “I’ve been right about everything.”
âClimate change, no matter what happens, youâre involved in that. No more global warming. No more global cooling. All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,â he said while lashing out at clean energy efforts around the planet.
Trumpâs comments on the world stage about green energy and climate change were consistent with his history of protecting the fossil fuel industry.
He has spent his first eight months in office dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency, clean energy programs, and environmental regulations. He also withdrew the United States from the Paris Treaty Agreement, which was adopted to reduce global warming.
âI personally think it’s wonderful that he is showing the entire world what an idiot he is,â a Threads user observed after viewing a video clip of the president’s remarks.
But then he said something that really left viewers scratching their heads.
âBut you know, we have a border, strong, and we have a shape, and that shape doesnât just go straight up. That shape is amorphous when it comes to the atmosphere,â Trump rambled on nonsensically.
Trump continued boasting, urging nations to mark his words: âIâm really good at predicting things…You know, they actually said during the campaign they had a hat, the bestselling hat, âTrump was right about everything,â and I don’t say that in a braggadocious way, but it’s true.”
Social media mocked the president, with one Threads user chiming in with a meme of Former Vice President Kamala Harris that read, “Oh hi there. Are you looking for the person who told you this would happen?” Someone responded, “We should make hats saying that Kamala was right about everything,” ridiculing the president’s earlier remarks.
Another Threads user stated, “Iâm really good at predicting thingsâ says the man with 6 bankruptcies.” Another commented under that reply, adding “And 32 felonies.” The president was actually convicted of 34 felony counts in a hush money case in New York.
Trump also falsely contended climate change is âthe greatest con job perpetrated on the world, in my opinion.â
He went on, âThe carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and theyâre heading down a path of total destruction ⊠So all of these countries are working so hard on the carbon footprint, which is nonsense by the way. Itâs nonsense.â
Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M, told the Associated Press that the term âcarbon footprintâ has sometimes been used by oil companies to shift responsibility onto individualsâbut this does not validate Trumpâs claim that climate change is a âcon job.”
But he wasnât done bashing the clean energy sector.
âYou know, itâs interesting. In the United States, we have still, radicalized environmentalists and they want the factories to stop; everything should stop. No more cows. They donât want cows anymore. I guess they want to kill all the cows…,” he ranted, making an oblique reference to the methane released by cattle flatulence.
According to the Associated Press report, there hasn’t been any evidence of people suggesting getting rid of cows.
Trump also claimed the United States has the cleanest air in âmany, many years.â Overall, air quality has improved compared with past decades, but millions of Americans still live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association. Much of this pollution comes from local energy production and industrial activity, rather than foreign sources, according to the Associated Press, contradicting Trumpâs claims.
“But the problem is that other countries, like China, which has air thatâs a little bit rough, it blows,â he said, making a hissing sound and waving his hands around, “And no matter what youâre doing down here, the air up here, tends to get very dirty because it comes in from other countries where their air isnât so clean, and the environmentalists refuse to acknowledge that,â he lectured to the assembled diplomats and world leaders.
Trumpâs performance crossed a line for one Threads user.
âTHIS IS IT, finally. This is the exact moment Trump sh#ts the bed and crosses the Rubicon of Derangement. To walk into the UN and just blurt out âI’VE BEEN RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHINGâ AND âYOUR COUNTRIES ARE GOING TO HELLâ…â
