OAN Staff Katherine Mosack and Brooke Mallory
4:20 PM – Wednesday, August 20, 2025
President Donald Trump intensified his criticism of windmills and wind turbines this week, denouncing them as inefficient and costly while blaming them for higher energy prices, power shortages and environmental harm.
On Tuesday, the president took to Truth Social to address the issue, singling out windmills in New Jersey. He argued that they are driving up energy costs and contributing to electricity shortages.
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According to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), electricity costs have indeed gone up, with the average electricity prices rising 5.5% higher this July than they were last July.
President Trump has also asserted that wind turbines and windmills are responsible for environmental harm, such as whale and bird deaths. He has consistently reminded the public that wind turbines kill “many bald eagles,” and that walking under a windmill is like “a graveyard for birds.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates annual bird deaths from turbines range from 21,000 to 679,000, with a median of 328,000.
However, following Trump’s whale comment, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that they believe strandings of humpback whales are caused “primarily due to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear,” contradicting his assertion.
Trump’s recent remarks continue his longstanding criticism of wind energy, from a July cabinet meeting, to visits to his Scottish golf club — where he has called windmills and wind turbines a “blight.” The 47th president has long clashed with the Scottish government over a wind farm nearby to his course and, upon returning to office, signed an executive order halting all federal wind permits — stalling over $100 billion in offshore energy investments.
The clash between Trump and the Scottish government over a wind farm dates back to 2006. Trump, who had purchased land near Balmedie, Scotland, for a golf resort, opposed the construction of an offshore wind farm that would be visible from his property. He argued that the turbines would spoil the view and harm tourism.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the U.S. Commerce Department also expanded the scope of its steel and aluminum tariffs, adding 407 additional product categories. The new tariffs apply to a wide array of goods, including wind turbines and windmills, in addition to cranes, bulldozers, railcars, furniture, compressors, automotive exhaust parts, and electrical steel used in EVs — with a 50% duty on their steel or aluminum content.
“The steel and aluminum content of these products will be subject to a duty rate of 50%,” the department said in its announcement.
Additionally, the recent announcement follows a newly instituted “inclusions process” under Section 232, which opened on May 1, 2025, for domestic producers and trade associations to submit requests for new derivative products to be covered by steel and aluminum tariffs. The Wind Tower Trade Coalition, which represents domestic manufacturers of utility-scale wind towers, used this process to request that imported wind tower parts be added to the list.
“Rising U.S. imports of low-priced wind towers have already caused significant harm to the domestic steel mill industry,” the group said. “Specifically, these imports have forced domestic wind tower producers to purchase imports rather than domestic steel mill products, resulting in fewer sales for domestic steel mills.”
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin also said in March that the Trump administration’s efforts “are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion.”
However, lefty supporters of renewable energy development and environmentalism have since decried the GOP administration’s crackdown via tariffs.
“We need to build more power generation now, and that includes renewable energy. The U.S. will need roughly 118 gigawatts (the equivalent of 12 New York Cities) of new power generation in the next four years to prevent price spikes and potential shortages,” said Ray Long, CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy.” Only a limited set of technologies – solar, wind, batteries and some natural gas – can be built at that scale in that time frame.”
“They’re basically trying to make it impossible or next to impossible to build wind or solar power in this country while at the same time rolling back regulations on fossil fuels,” said Nick Krakoff, senior attorney with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation.
Nevertheless, on Wednesday, the 47th president doubled down on his aversion, saying:
“Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS. THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY! We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump wrote. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”
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