President Donald Trump escalated his war on windmills on Monday with his administration pausing all large-scale offshore wind projects under construction.
The administration announced that the work would stop effective immediately citing national security risks identified by the Defense Department.
The Daily Beast reached out to the Defense Department in an effort to learn more about those concerns.
It comes as Trump, 79, has long railed against windmills both on the campaign trail and since he returned to office.
The Department of the Interior said the halt would give it, the Defense Department and other agencies time to work with leaseholders and other partners the time needed to assess and reduce alleged risks, but it did not put a timeline on the pause.
It’s the latest move by the administration to hamper the offshore wind industry. It comes just two weeks after a federal judge struck down Trump’s executive order from January 2025 to block wind energy projects, calling it unlawful.
Critics have warned that the administration’s move on Monday to halt projects will kill jobs and raise energy costs.
The move pauses leases on five wind farm projects in the Atlantic Ocean including ones off the coasts of Massachusetts, Virginia, Rhode Island and New York.
According to the administration, unclassified reports have found that turbine blade movement and reflective towers create radar interference called “clutter,” creating false targets for those like the military and air traffic controllers.
Industry members and Democratic lawmakers representing states where projects were halted slammed the halt of projects on Monday.
The Oceantic Network, which represents offshore wind companies, called it another attempt to hide that Trump does not like offshore wind.
“The U.S. offshore wind industry has continuously worked with the Department of Defense to address national security concerns, and its own Clearinghouse has signed off on every offshore wind lease ahead of construction,” said CEO Liz Burdock.
Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said it was hard to see the difference between the new national security risk allegations and previous ones rejected in court.
He said the Revolution Wind project off his state already went through thorough vetting, and its review included potential national security questions.
“This is President Donald ‘Stop Work’ Trump trying to keep affordable, clean energy off the grid, without a care about how many working people have to lose their jobs to keep his fossil fuel billionaires happy,” Whitehouse said.
Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren also issued a statement as the decision halts the Vineyard Wind 1 project off the coast there.
They warned that the project has already been delivering energy even while some turbines remain under construction. They said if the administration’s pause at the offshore plant remains in place, it would shut off enough electricity to power 400,000 homes and kill thousands of jobs while wiping out $3.7 billion in energy cost savings.
Trump has repeatedly rambled about his dislike of windmills and renewable energy.
“The wind doesn’t blow. Those windmills are so pathetic and so bad, and so expensive to operate,” the president whined while addressing the UN General Assembly in September.
“We’re not allowing any windmills to go up,” Trump also said at the White House in August. “They’re ruin our country. They’re ruining everyone.”
But the president’s rejection of wind energy dates back to before he ever ran for president.
When he was just a businessman, he opposed wind turbines being raised near his golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland. He fought the construction of the offshore wind farm in the Scottish courts but lost.
