EARTH, WIND & LIAR
Trump plays GOP voters for suckers — calls climate change ‘bulls--t,’ then submits plan for a wall to protect his golf course from ‘global warming’
DONALD TRUMP has labeled climate change “bulls--t,” a “con job” and a fiendish plot by the Chinese — until the effects of global warming threatened one of his golf courses.
Now he wants to build a wall to keep the Atlantic Ocean out of his golf resort in Ireland, just like the wall he says he’ll build on the U.S. border to keep Mexicans out. But this time Trump looks like he’ll pay for the wall to protect his investment.
The notoriously fickle Republican huckster’s apparent sea change came as rising sea levels caused by climate change unleashed storms that battered the Irish coast and imperiled his luxury resort.
Trump International Golf Links & Hotel, in County Clare, cited the threat of global warming in its attempt to secure a permit for a 2-mile stone wall that would protect the sprawling resort from the ocean, according to the company’s application, first reported on by Politico and filed earlier this month in Ireland.
The application also cited local regulations in County Clare, a scenic and rocky stretch along the Emerald Isle’s western coastline, regarding “rising sea levels and increased storm frequency and wave energy associated with global warming” — a stunning acknowledgment of the threat.
Officials at the Trump-owned course have said the beach by the resort’s 18th green has been disappearing by about 3 feet a year because of the rising waters.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has repeatedly scoffed at claims that humans are causing global warming.
Trump has even vowed, if elected, to renegotiate the pact President Obama agreed upon with other world powers to cut global warming-causing carbon emissions and has tweeted that the entire “concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive.”
“The entire country is FREEZ-
ING — we desperately need a heavy dose of global warming, and fast! Ice caps size reaches all time high,” Trump tweeted in 2014.
Alan Garten, who serves as general counsel to the Trump organization, did not respond to questions about the application for the wall. The Trump campaign also did not respond to questions for comment.
Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), one of Trump’s advisers on environmental issues and himself a self-proclaimed “climate change skeptic,” remained mum as well after The News sent his office questions.
Environmental advocates, on the other hand, were more than happy to comment.
“Trump’s move to literally shield himself from the impacts of climate change while denying the problem even exists reveals one of his fundamental flaws. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect his own profits, but shows little interest in protecting the rest of us,” League of Conservation Voters spokesman Seth Stein told the Daily News.
Sierra Club spokesman Adam Beitman said the apparent inconsistency shows Trump “clearly cares more about the fate of his golf courses than the health of the millions of families already affected by the climate crisis.”
“Everyone who experienced the devastation of Hurricane Sandy knows that we can’t afford a President who would ignore the biggest challenges facing us, but must tackle them head-on,” Beitman added.