Opinion | Trump’s surprising win for the climate

The Washington Post · last updated January 12, 2026 – 2:21 AM

Ted Nordhaus is founder and president of the Breakthrough Institute, a nonprofit supporting technological solutions to environmental challenges.

One of the great ironies of the first Trump administration was that amid all the talk of bleach, horse dewormers, mask mandates and school closures, most people didn’t pay attention to the policy that essentially ended the pandemic: Operation Warp Speed.

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