Because Trump treats our environment like an enemy

The splendor of the natural world is a bipartisan privilege meant to be enjoyed and protected by all humans alike. Since the founding of our nation, the spirit of the United States has been intractably intertwined with its vast and varied geography of forests, lakes, mountains, and deserts. 

As president, Donald Trump felt differently, frequently taking hostile action targeting environmental policy and protections during his four years in office. The Trump administration also made great efforts to silence concerns over climate change, including issuing a new list of banned terms (with “climate change” among them) to staff at the United States Department of Agriculture on February 16, 2017. By the following month, reports had emerged that similar restrictions were being imposed on the US Energy Department’s Climate Office.

On April 14, 2017, the Trump administration shocked the world when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement: a global initiative to address climate change signed by over two hundred other countries. Just weeks later, all information regarding the subject of climate change on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website was found to have been altered or removed entirely. 

That June, the US officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement, eventually leaving the United States as the only country to reject the global pact following Syria’s inclusion the following month. On October 3, 2017, the Trump administration denied endangered species protections to twenty-five “highly imperiled” species, including the Pacific walrus, Bicknell’s thrush, and Kirtland’s snake. The following day, news broke revealing EPA director Scott Pruitt’s schedule included near-daily meetings with oil lobbyists, automobile company executives, and other industry leaders—but almost no time spent with environmental advocates.

These trends would continue for the entirety of Trump’s time in office. Proving his inability to recognize the existential threats posed by climate change, Trump made a social media post during an extreme cold weather event on the East Coast in 2017 in which he mused that the area could “use some good old global warming.” The freezing temperatures would eventually leave thirty-nine people dead.

In 2018,  Trump ended funding for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System, used to measure carbon dioxide and methane and to verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate accords. During a 2019 speech, Trump boasted that his administration had made the environment “a top priority to ensure that America has among the very cleanest air and cleanest water on the planet.” In truth, pollution grew worse under Trump’s tenure.

Should Trump win reelection, the existential threats currently facing our environment risk becoming an irreversible certainty.