President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads again this week with the repeated claim that his father was born in Germany (he was born in the Bronx). However, the most curious moment came with this statement to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner: “If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer.” The basis for this claim remains a mystery.
Trump has long been a critic of low polluting, renewable energy despite the rapid shift of many countries to such alternative energy sources. However, the idea that windmills cause cancer has left many looking for any source for such a statement.
Trump has hated windmills after ever since a battle in Scotland over a plan to build a wind farm near his golf resort in Aberdeen. He called the windmills “ugly” and fought to stop the program.
The American Cancer Society is hardly passive when it comes to cancer sources. However, a spokesperson told the New York Times that “The American Cancer Society is unaware of any credible evidence linking the noise from windmills to cancer.”
What is troubling for many is that, while there is no connection between windmill noise and cancer, there is ample evidence that the fossil fuels pushed by President Trump kill a huge number of people each year. The changes in relaxing coal pollution limits by the Trump Administration were estimated by his own EPA to add 1,400 additional premature deaths each yearby 2030.
The claim that windmill cause cancer is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s much-mocked statement that trees produce more pollution than cars. Even his own press secretary got into trouble with Reagan for mocking the claim on Air Force One.
In this case, even Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley have described Trump’s claim of windmill noise causing cancer as “idiotic.”
