The President Who Declared War on the Wind
Imagine a leader who picks a fight with the weather. Who rails, repeatedly and passionately, against a technology that powers millions of homes, employs hundreds of thousands of workers, and is rapidly becoming the cheapest form of electricity on earth. That is exactly what Donald Trump has been doing for nearly a decade — and Trump’s windmill propaganda is wrong in ways that are not merely misleading but, in several cases, a complete reversal of documented reality.
Trump called windmills “big” and “ugly,” but also claimed they cause cancer, drive whales to madness, devastate property values by half, and that China — which has the most wind farms in the world — refuses to use them. He signed executive orders to halt offshore wind development and declared that his “goal is to not let any windmill be built.” So, because facts matter, let’s take every major claim apart — one by one — and hold each one against the light of verified, authoritative data.
$30Cost per MWh for onshore wind — cheaper than gas at $65 and nuclear at $80+
444GWChina’s operating wind capacity — 44% of the entire global total
234KBirds killed annually by wind turbines — vs 2.4 billion by cats
90%Of a wind turbine’s mass that can currently be recycled
10%Of total US electricity now generated by wind power
~10Years Trump has been fact-checked for the same false windmill claims
Claim #1: Wind Is the Most Expensive Energy Ever Conceived
Trump’s Claim — Repeated at Cabinet meetings, UN General Assembly, Davos, and campaign rallies, 2025
“Wind is a very expensive form of energy.” / “The most expensive energy ever conceived.” / Wind energy “can’t exist without massive subsidies.”
❌ VERDICT: FALSE
Onshore wind is one of the cheapest forms of electricity generation on earth. The US Energy Information Administration puts new onshore wind at around $30 per megawatt hour — compared to $65 for a new natural gas plant and over $80 for advanced nuclear. Offshore wind is more expensive, but nuclear — not wind — holds the title of most expensive power type. Onshore wind farms cost less to build and operate than natural gas plants in most US regions, even without tax credits.
So where does the “most expensive” framing come from? It is true that some offshore wind projects — like Ørsted’s Ocean Wind development in New Jersey — have been cancelled due to supply chain and inflation pressures. But as FactCheck.org confirms, this reflects specific market conditions rather than a fundamental truth about wind energy costs. Trump takes an exception and presents it as the rule — because the rule contradicts his argument entirely.
Claim #2: China Makes Windmills But Has Almost None of Its Own
Trump’s Claim — Davos, UN General Assembly, White House Cabinet meeting, 2025
“I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China… They make them and sell them to suckers like Europe, but they don’t use them themselves. They use coal.”
❌ VERDICT: SPECTACULARLY FALSE — CNN called it “a reversal of reality”
China is not merely a user of wind power. It is the undisputed global leader. China’s operating wind farm capacity stood at 444,000 megawatts as of early 2025 — approximately 44% of the entire global total and nearly triple the capacity of the United States. In 2024, China’s new wind turbine installations made up 70% of the global total, and its cumulative capacity accounts for nearly 50% of all wind power installed worldwide.
Mediaite reported CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale describing the claim as “a reversal of reality,” and so it is. China is simultaneously the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines AND the world’s largest operator of wind power. It is building additional wind capacity faster than the US, not slower. TIME’s Davos fact check confirmed that China’s 2024 installations alone made up 70% of the global total. Trump made this claim at the United Nations, at the World Economic Forum, and in the White House — and it was demonstrably, verifiably false on every occasion.
The idea that China is just foisting this terrible source of energy on other countries while refusing to use it is a reversal of reality. — CNN Fact-Checker Daniel Dale, September 2025
Claim #3: Windmills Are Killing Whales
Trump’s Claim — Inaugural rally, January 2025 and repeated throughout his second term
“Windmills are driving the whales crazy, obviously.” / “If you’re into whales, you don’t want windmills either.”
❌ VERDICT: FALSE — No scientific evidence supports this claim
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — the federal agency responsible for marine mammal protection — has stated clearly: “There is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could potentially cause whale deaths,” and “no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities.”
Scientists studying whale strandings along the US East Coast have identified the actual culprits as ship strikes, entanglements with fishing gear, and disease — factors that long predate offshore wind development. FactCheck.org has addressed this claim multiple times since 2023, and the scientific consensus has not shifted. So why does Trump keep saying it? Because it works emotionally — and because repeating something often enough makes it feel true, regardless of the evidence.
Claim #4: Windmills Are Massacring Birds
Trump’s Claim — Truth Social post, December 2025 (viewed nearly 1 million times)
“Windmills are killing all of our beautiful Bald Eagles!” — posted alongside an image of a dead bird in front of wind turbines.
❌ VERDICT: FALSE AND FABRICATED — The image was a falcon. In Israel.
The bird in Trump’s viral Truth Social post was not a bald eagle. It was a falcon. And the photo was not taken in the United States — it was taken at a wind farm in Israel, as text in the Hebrew alphabet visible in the image confirmed. Snopes verified this in full.
But even setting aside the fabricated image, the broader “bird massacre” narrative does not hold up. Yes, wind turbines do kill birds — approximately 234,000 per year in the US. But as DW’s fact-check team documented, the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s median estimates put cats at 2.4 billion bird deaths annually, glass building collisions at 600 million, and vehicle collisions at 215 million. Wind turbines are near the bottom of the list — well below electrical lines, communication towers, and even pesticide poisoning. Trump never mentions cats. So there is clearly a selective concern for birds at work here.
📊 Annual Bird Deaths in the US — Putting Wind in Perspective
Cats: 2.4 billion | Glass buildings: 600 million | Vehicles: 215 million | Electrical lines: 25 million | Communication towers: 6.8 million | Wind turbines: 234,000 — less than 0.01% of the cat total. Source: US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Claim #5: Windmills Slash Property Values in Half
Trump’s Claim — Inaugural rally speech, January 20, 2025
“If you have a house that’s near a windmill, guess what? Your house is worth less than half.”
❌ VERDICT: FALSE — No studies support anything close to this figure
According to a 2024 report by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, most peer-reviewed studies on the subject show no change or only small, localised changes in property values near wind farms — and mostly in urban areas. No study has found anything approaching a 50% or 65% decline, figures Trump has cited interchangeably at different events. FactCheck.org confirmed this finding directly.
The Full Scorecard: Every Major Windmill Claim, Rated
| Trump’s Claim | The Facts | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| “Wind is the most expensive energy ever conceived” | Onshore wind costs ~$30/MWh. Gas costs $65, nuclear $80+. Wind is among the cheapest. | ❌ FALSE |
| “China makes windmills but uses none itself” | China has 444GW of wind capacity — 44% of the global total and triple the US share. | ❌ FALSE |
| “Windmills are driving whales crazy” | NOAA: No scientific evidence links offshore wind activities to whale deaths. | ❌ FALSE |
| “Windmills are killing all our bald eagles” | The viral photo was a falcon in Israel. Wind turbines kill 234,000 birds/year vs 2.4 billion by cats. | ❌ FALSE |
| “Houses near windmills lose half their value” | Columbia University Sabin Center: most studies show no or small property value changes. | ❌ FALSE |
| “You can’t recycle wind turbine blades” | The US DOE confirmed 90% of wind turbine materials can be recycled with existing infrastructure. | ❌ FALSE |
| “Wind can’t power a country when wind doesn’t blow” | True only if a grid ran on 100% wind — no grid does. Modern grids blend wind with storage and other sources. | ⚠️ MISLEADING |
| “Wind turbines are made practically all in China” | China leads globally, but the US has significant domestic turbine manufacturing, including GE and Vestas US facilities. | ⚠️ EXAGGERATED |
Why This Propaganda Has Real-World Consequences
It would be tempting to dismiss Trump’s windmill crusade as mere eccentricity — a quirky obsession alongside his golf game. But the consequences are both measurable and serious. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order suspending all offshore wind leasing on federal land and waters, and halting existing federal permits. By February 2026, the US wind industry had shed thousands of planned jobs and billions in planned investment, because developers could not secure the regulatory certainty needed to proceed.
Wind power currently generates approximately 10% of all US electricity, so it is not a marginal technology — it is a core component of the national grid. Meanwhile, DW reported that countries like Denmark generate 58% of their electricity from wind, and Germany generates 28%. In 2024, wind and solar combined generated more US electricity than coal for the first time in history. These are not the achievements of a failing technology. They are the milestones of one that is winning — and that is precisely what makes the propaganda so strategically timed.
- Trump’s wind energy executive orders on Day 1 caused immediate investment flight from the US offshore wind sector
- Thousands of planned green energy jobs were cancelled or suspended within weeks of the orders
- False claims about cost and reliability have fed into Republican state-level legislation restricting wind development
- Six million views of the whale claim on X demonstrate how rapidly disinformation spreads when amplified by a president
- Trump’s false China narrative actively weakens the US competitive argument for building its own renewable supply chain
Conclusion: The Facts Are Not Blowing in Trump’s Direction
Trump has been making the same false claims about wind energy for nearly a decade. FactCheck.org has been debunking them for nearly as long — and so have the Associated Press, CNN, TIME, Snopes, DW, and virtually every credible fact-checking institution that has examined them. Yet the claims persist, escalate, and find new platforms, because repetition — not accuracy — is the engine of effective political disinformation.
But facts do not negotiate. Wind is cheap — and getting cheaper. China has more wind farms than any country on earth. Whales are dying from ship strikes and fishing gear, not turbines. Birds are dying by the billions from cats — not windmills. Property values near wind farms are largely unaffected. And 90% of a wind turbine can be recycled today, with the rest being actively addressed by the industry.
Trump’s windmill propaganda is not just wrong. It is consequentially wrong — because it shapes energy policy, stifles investment, misleads voters, and entrenches America’s dependence on fossil fuels at the precise moment when the global competition for clean energy leadership is intensifying most fiercely. China is building wind capacity at triple America’s pace. But Trump cannot find any wind farms in China. And that, ultimately, tells you everything you need to know about whose energy policy is built on reality — and whose is built on propaganda.
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📚 Sources & References
- FactCheck.org — What to Know About Trump’s Executive Order on Wind Energy (February 2025)
- FactCheck.org — Trump Misleads on Climate Change and Renewables at the UN (September 2025)
- FactCheck.org — Wind Energy Archives: Full Fact-Check Record (Updated 2025)
- AP / The Energy Mix — Fact Check: Trump Misstates Key Facts on Wind Power (July 2025)
- Mediaite — Trump Claims China Has No Windmills. It Has the Most in the World (January 2026)
- TIME — Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech at Davos (January 2026)
- CNN — Fact Check: Trump Litters UN Speech with False Claims (September 2025)
- Snopes — Wrong Place, Wrong Bird: Trump’s Bald Eagle Wind Turbine Post (December 2025)
- DW / Yahoo News — Fact Check: Debunking Trump’s False Claims on Wind Energy (June 2025)
- US Energy Information Administration — Electricity Generation from Wind (Updated 2025)