Trump, 80, Accidentally Roasts Himself With Windmill Rant
The president’s jab backfired spectacularly.
President Donald Trump unwittingly called himself a loser in his latest onslaught against windmills.
Trump, 80, once again railed against his most hated renewable energy source during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday as he ranted about his issues with Europe.
“When I see what’s happening to Europe, it’s very sad to me,” the president said. “But they have a problem with immigration, they have a problem with energy—they have windmills all over the place."
“Any country with windmills is a loser, okay?” he added. “You just have to look. If they have windmills, they’re a loser. Because you lose money with windmills.”
Trump brought up his favorite topic of windmills on Monday.
Evelyn Hockstein/REUTERS
The U.S. has more than 77,000 wind turbines across more than 1,800 onshore and offshore projects, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2025, wind power generated 464.4 terawatt-hours of electricity—roughly 10.5 percent of the entire nation’s power, according to climate policy expert Steven Cohen.
The White House did not immediately return the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Trump has long protested windmills, like the ones offshore the Trump International Golf Links course in Scotland, where he visited last summer.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
The president has harbored a strange vendetta against wind turbines ever since the Scottish government installed a wind project within sight of his golf course in Aberdeenshire more than a decade ago.
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Since he first entered politics, Trump has repeatedly shared claims that wind-powered turbines cause cancer, kill birds and whales, and destroy property values.
Wind power accounts for over 10 percent of the nation's energy production.
Gina Ferazzi/Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Last week, Trump recalled a bizarre story about how people couldn’t watch his June 27, 2024, debate with Joe Biden because “the wind wasn’t blowing,” which he alleged caused a widespread TV blackout in areas that use wind power.
However, as reporter Daniel Dale pointed out on CNN, Trump’s story, which he has repeated frequently, was “completely made up.”
“More than 51 million Americans watched that debate on television alone, including people, of course, in the state that produces, by far, the most wind power, and that is Texas—Republican-dominated Texas,” Dale said.
“Televisions don’t go out, houses are still powered when the wind isn’t blowing,” he continued. “And that’s because wind is used as a mix of power sources—not as a sole source. Also, batteries exist that can store wind for periods when the wind isn’t blowing."
The White House has previously told the Daily Beast that wind energy is the “scam of the century” and that Americans have paid “billions more for the least reliable form of energy.”
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