Former Republican President Donald Trump’s incoherent response to a question about climate change during a Fox Business interview on Monday left viewers bewildered.
In a haphazard fashion, the former President rattled off an inaccurate tale about the “history” of climate change.
The commentary was his answer to a question posed by host Stuart Varney, who asked:
"Is the climate changing because of human activity?"
Citing no authority for his information, Trump answered:
"In my opinion, you have a thing called weather.”
“And you go up and you go down. If you look at it in the 1920s, they were talking about global freezing.”
“OK? In other words, the globe was going to freeze.”
“And then they go global warming and then they couldn't use that because the temperatures were actually quite cool and it's many different things.”
“So now, they just talk about climate change."
He concluded his monologue by saying:
“The climate has always been changing.”
You can see the segment here:
Trump denounced the climate crisis, claiming it is a hoax. His claims that efforts to reverse the effects of climate change make the country “non-competitive” stunted sustainability goals in the United States during his presidency.
According to the New York Times, Trump rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules during his presidency.
Reactions to the interview were overwhelmingly critical of the former President, with Duty To Warn posting:
"On Fox Business today, Trump was asked about climate change, and delivered this Einsteinian response: 'In my opinion, you have a thing called weather. And it goes up and it goes down. If you look into the 1920s, they were talking about global freezing'."
"My brain hurts."
Another tweeted:
"He can't even string 2 words that make any sense together."
Political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen commented:
"I don’t know what’s more baffling: how stupid he is or how confident he is in his stupidity."
While someone else shared:
"Dumb does not even come close to capturing how astoundingly ignorant this man is."
"What an embarrassment that he was president of U.S."
It is well-established climate change is, in fact, very real and a direct product of emissions caused by human activity.
According to the National Center for Science Education, it’s precisely because of human impact that the planet is warming, not cooling.
Yet, Trump’s public factual inaccuracies continue to be parroted by his devout followers:
"Bet the media will take what Trump just said on @Varneyco out of context as usual."
"He said that what the Green supporters are pushing is a 'climate hoax'."
"He did not say that climate change is a hoax prove me wrong."
The dangers of Trump's rhetoric surrounding climate change continue to wreak havoc beyond his presidency.
