Donald Trump doesn’t think much of climate change, in 20 quotes

On Monday night, the New York Times published a draft copy of a report from 13 government agencies that affirms climate change is real and human actions are having an effect on the warming of the planet.

The Times story notes that “scientists say they fear that the Trump administration could change or suppress the report.” Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is an outspoken climate change skeptic, who does not believe carbon dioxide is a major factor in global warming.

Trump himself has been an aggressive critic of climate change for years. A search of the invaluable Trump Twitter Archive turns up 106 tweets in which Trump mentions “global warming” and 36 in which he used the phrase “climate change.”

All of those mentions express serious skepticism about the phenomenon. Trump has tweeted dozens of times about how it is so cold wherever he is and how that debunks the idea the climate is changing. He was also fixated for a time on the idea that scientists were changing the preferred nomenclature from “global warming” to “climate change.”

I mined through all of those tweets as well as a number of statements Trump has made about climate change. The 20 most dismissive are below in rough chronological order – starting in 2012 with his oldest comments.

2012

1. “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

2. “It’s freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming!”

2013

3. “It’s freezing outside, where the hell is ‘global warming’??”

4. “I wonder if the Rutgers coach who had the audacity to yell at the player is a proponent of global warming?”

5. “We should be focused on magnificently clean and healthy air and not distracted by the expensive hoax that is global warming!”

6. “Wow, it’s snowing in Isreal and on the pyramids in Egypt. Are we still wasting billions on the global warming con? MAKE U.S. COMPETITIVE!”

7. “Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I’m in Los Angeles and it’s freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!”

2014

8. “Give me clean, beautiful and healthy air - not the same old climate change (global warming) bullshit! I am tired of hearing this nonsense.”

9. Obama said in his SOTU that ‘global warming is a fact.’ Sure, about as factual as ‘if you like your healthcare, you can keep it.’”

10. “When will our country stop wasting money on global warming and so many other truly “STUPID” things and begin to focus on lower taxes?”

11. “It’s late in July and it is really cold outside in New York. Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING??? We need some fast! It’s now CLIMATE CHANGE”

12. “Just out - the POLAR ICE CAPS are at an all time high, the POLAR BEAR population has never been stronger. Where the hell is global warming?”

2015

13. “It’s really cold outside, they are calling it a major freeze, weeks ahead of normal. Man, we could use a big fat dose of global warming!”

14. “Wow, 25 degrees below zero, record cold and snow spell. Global warming anyone?”

15. “Record low temperatures and massive amounts of snow. Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING?”