Trump Rambles About Birds Frying on Solar Panels in Bizarre Rant

President Donald Trump, 79, is once again tilting at his favorite enemy: renewable energy.

During a rambling press gaggle aboard Air Force One on Thursday, the president unleashed a tirade against wind turbines and solar panels, mixing half-baked claims with outright bizarre imagery. “Every time you put up a windmill, it costs the country millions of dollars a year to have that horrible thing turn,” Trump declared. “It’s ugly, it’s bad for the environment, it kills the birds, and beyond that it costs a fortune.”

Then came the part that left even seasoned reporters blinking in confusion. Trump claimed black solar panels were incinerating wildlife. “You ever see what happens to a bird when a bird lands on these? They fry, because it’s hot… a bird lands on them? It’s over,” he said, before abruptly changing the subject.

A Long-Running Grudge

Trump’s hatred of renewable energy isn’t new. As far back as the early 2000s, he waged war against offshore wind farms in Scotland, insisting they spoiled the view from his luxury golf resort in Aberdeen. He has repeatedly insisted turbines “kill whales,” and during his recent four-day trip to Scotland in July, he blasted them as “ruining your beautiful fields and valleys.”

Energy experts have long dismissed his claims. “Wind and solar are among the cheapest and cleanest sources of power available today,” said Leah Stokes, a political scientist at UC Santa Barbara who studies U.S. climate policy. “The president is trying to turn America’s energy future into a punchline because he’s clinging to the past.”

Pushing Oil While the World Moves On

Trump’s remarks came after a joint press conference with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where the president urged the U.K. to double down on oil drilling in the North Sea. “The North Sea oil is phenomenal,” Trump said, adding, “My mother was born in Scotland. I want this country to do well, and you have great assets that they could start using.”

Starmer, visibly irritated, pushed back, saying Britain would stick to its “pragmatic” plan of expanding renewable energy while still managing oil and gas.

Environmental advocates blasted Trump’s comments as dangerous and out of step. “While the planet faces record heat waves, fires, and floods, the president is telling other countries to burn more oil,” said Gina McCarthy, former White House climate advisor under President Biden. “It’s reckless, it’s selfish, and it puts American leadership at risk.”

Democrats Sound the Alarm

Back in Washington, Democrats wasted no time pouncing on Trump’s latest outburst. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts called it “the climate denial circus in full swing.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez added on X: “The rest of the world is moving toward clean energy, but Trump is stuck in 1950 with oil rigs and conspiracy theories about solar panels frying birds.”

Polls show Americans are increasingly supportive of renewable energy — 72 percent of voters under 40 back expanding wind and solar, according to Pew Research. But Trump, ever eager to rile up his base, continues to frame clean energy as elitist nonsense.

As one White House correspondent put it after the Air Force One gaggle: “It was classic Trump — nostalgic for oil, obsessed with his golf course, and railing against imaginary fried birds.”