Trump assails 'windmills' and wind energy as junk: 'They're losers'

President Donald Trump bragged about his opposition to wind turbines during a meeting with oil executives at the White House on Jan. 9, reiterating his long-stated dislike of “windmills.”

“In case you people don’t know I’m not much of a windmill person,” the president told the oil executives. “We have not approved one windmill since I’ve been in office and we’re going to keep it that way.”

“My goal is to not let any windmill be built. They’re losers,” Trump said. He railed against wind farms in Europe and Palm Springs, California, and falsely asserted a lack of wind turbines in China.

Europe is “putting windmills all over the place and losing a fortune,” the president said. “They’re destroying their country. They’re destroying the beautiful landscapes. The beautiful everything.”

“Go take a look at Palm Springs, California, and take a look at what that looks like,” said Trump, who has railed against the wind turbines there for at least 13 years. “Looks like a junkyard, a junkyard of steel.”

“Just about all the windmills are made in China,” Trump said. “They make them and sell them to suckers like Europe and suckers like the United States before.”

“All you have to do is say to China: ‘How many windmill areas do you have in China?’ So far they’re not able to find any,” he said. “They use coal and they use oil and gas and some nuclear, not much, but they don’t have windmills.”

China has in fact become a world leader in the use of wind turbines to produce energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

How much wind energy capacity does China have?

The Energy Department reported in 2025 that China added 79 gigawatts of wind generation capacity in 2024, growing its capacity by 18%. Its total wind capacity had reached 521 gigawatts.

China had 138 offshore wind farms operating as of April 2025, according to Statista. It led the world in new offshore wind installations in 2024 for the seventh year in a row, according to a Global Offshore Wind Report by the Global Wind Energy Council, an international trade association.

It has one of the highest expansion rates of any major market and was expected to install more than 87 gigawatts of wind power in 2025, according to the World Wind Energy Association.

Wind and solar power were two of the fastest-growing energy sectors in the United States and produced as much as 17% of the country’s electricity in 2024, according to the Department of Energy. Land-based wind turbines produced 10% of the United States’ electricity, the vast majority on private land, American Clean Power, an industry group, reported.

Wind, solar and batteries had been responsible for close to 95% of all new energy capacity in the United States, said Jesse Lee, senior advisor at Climate Power, an advocacy organization devoted to climate change and clean energy. Since taking office a year ago, the president has been “successful at stomping out new wind and solar production” in many ways, Lee said.

Clean Power criticized Trump for his meeting with the oil industry, which the advocacy group says donated hundreds of millions to influence the campaigns of Trump and other Republicans, “while taking a sledgehammer to the homegrown clean energy industry, which would actually lower energy costs for Americans.”

Trump had drawn the ire of climate change and environmental advocacy groups earlier in the week, when he announced the United States would withdraw from 66 treaties, conventions and organizations, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

What has the Trump administration’s stance been on wind energy?

During the first year of his second administration, Trump declared a national energy emergency but also issued a flurry of executive orders and directives limiting new wind and solar projects, and took aim at renewable energy subsidies and incentives. One executive order temporarily halted offshore wind energy lease sales in federal waters and paused approvals, permits and loans for both offshore and onshore wind, USA TODAY previously reported.

The administration has halted five ongoing projects off New England and faces lawsuits from companies that already had made significant investments in new wind energy before their projects were stopped, according to reporting by the Providence Journal and other news outlets in the USA TODAY Network in the region.

Trump administration orders halt to offshore wind projects. What it means.

Federal officials also were directed to review the environmental impact of wind projects on wildlife and consider the “economic costs associated with intermittent generation” and the effects of subsidies on the viability of the wind energy industry.

Lee said Trump has “done his very best to ban wind and solar at a time where electricity demand is going through the roof because of data centers and AI.”

In July 2025, U.S. electricity peak demand set new record highs twice, according to the Energy Department.

More: Is America done with clean energy? Why wind, solar power are in peril

Trump vowed to continue his efforts against wind energy during the meeting with executives on Jan. 9, calling turbines the “worst form of energy.”

“So we don’t approve and I’ve told my people we will not approve windmills,” he said. “Maybe we get forced to do something because some stupid person in the Biden administration agreed to do something years ago.”

Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, wildlife and the environment. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump assails ‘windmills’ and wind energy as junk: ‘They’re losers’