Every day Donald Trump shows us the wonders of having a demented president, with a staff, Congress, and Supreme court that are all too scared to rein him in. His latest venture in absurdity is canceling five offshore wind projects because of “national defense.” 

It seems Trump got his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, a man with as much independence as used chewing gum, to say that the wind turbines interfere with radar. No one prior to Secretary Hegseth seemed to be aware of the radar damaging effects of windmills.

Presumably, when it comes to the lawsuits that will inevitably be filed by the companies that invested billions, the Donald J. Trump Memorial Supreme Court will say that the president’s determination of a national security issue cannot be questioned.  

Wind Energy Is Cheap and Clean

Trump’s hatred of wind energy apparently stems from wind turbines being located near one of his golf courses in Scotland. Trump felt this damaged the aesthetic of his golf course and lost a lengthy legal battle trying to stop the project. Since then, he has gone to great lengths to try to stop construction of wind electricity generating facilities in the United States and around the world. 

Many of Trump’s complaints against windmills can only be seen as evidence of his dementia. He has often told stories about offshore windfarms killing whales. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which studies things like whale populations, says there is no evidence of windmills causing any whale deaths. If Trump knows of any evidence, he apparently has chosen not to share it with NOAA. 

He has also claimed it kills birds, which is true, as is the case with any structure. The Department of Energy estimated the number of bird deaths from wind turbines at 200,000 a year. That compares to 130 million a year from power lines and 300 million to 1 billion from buildings. If the concern is killing birds, wind turbines are very far from being the main problem.

And wind energy is cheap. Most estimates put the cost at 3-5 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s less than coal and comparable to natural gas. And wind turbines don’t emit greenhouse gases, unlike generators fueled by coal or natural gas.

Since the projects that Trump halted were already underway, and at least one quite far along, the marginal cost going forward would be very low. Ending these projects will mean higher electricity costs for the 2.5 million homes that could have been served by these wind turbines when they are completed.

Trump’s tantrum against the wind will also cost jobs. It is estimated that that 10,000 jobs are involved in the construction and maintenance of the projects.

China is Steaming Ahead on Clean Energy and Wind

While Trump seems determined to have the United States spew as much carbon, along with other pollutants, as possible, China is going 180 degrees in the opposite direction. China is by far the world leader in both wind and solar energy, in both cases having almost as much installed capacity as the rest of the world combined. 

Its increased capacity for clean energy generation has more than matched the growth in demand for electricity in 2025, meaning the demand for fossil fuels in the electricity sector has fallen. With electric vehicles now accounting for close to 60 percent of its new vehicle sales, demand for fossil fuels in the transportation sector is likely also falling. 

The massive buildout of clean energy generation in China also means that electricity is cheap and plentiful in China. The average price for electricity for residential users is just 8 cents per kilowatt hour and 11 cents for business and industrial users. That compares to an average of around 18 cents per kilowatt hour in the United States. 

With the immense demand for electricity from data centers and Bitcoin miners, rates in the U.S. have been rising rapidly and are likely to be considerably higher in the near future. Rates rose on average 6.9% over the last year. In contrast, the rapid expansion of clean electricity sources is likely to mean that prices in China will be stable or even falling in the years ahead. That is not a good story for U.S. companies in the AI race.

Hating the Wind Is Expensive

The bottom line is that the country and the world will pay a high price for Donald Trump’s irrational hatred of wind energy. His dementia doesn’t change the reality of global warming; and we are contributing to it in a big way as a result of his policies. The other pollutants released from fossil fuels also have a direct effect on the people exposed to them, especially those suffering from asthma or other respiratory diseases. 

And turning away from a cheap source of energy raises costs and hurts the economy. This is not a tradeoff between the environment and the economy. Donald Trump is harming both.