--- title: "Confused Trump Issues Garbled Warning About “Nuclear Warming”" description: "Former president Donald Trump made a mind-meltingly dumb assertion that we should be more worried about \"nuclear warming.\"" date: "2024-09-28" modified: "2024-09-28" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/trump-nuclear-warming" categories: - "Energy" - "Nuclear Fusion" - "Renewable Energy" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "climate change" - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "global warming" - "the digest" --- # Confused Trump Issues Garbled Warning About “Nuclear Warming” ![Former president Donald Trump made a mind-meltingly dumb assertion that we should be more worried about "nuclear warming."]() *\Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Old Man Yells During a characteristically rambling speech from Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday, former president Donald Trump [made the mind-meltingly dumb assertion]() that we should be more worried about "nuclear warming" than actual global warming. "What happened to the environment?" he told a room full of reporters. "They don't mention it. They don't mention that the ocean's going to rise a quarter of an inch of the next 500 years... what they should start mentioning is nuclear warming." The dumbfounding comment raises numerous questions. Who exactly is "they"? And what the hell is "nuclear warming"? It's not the first time the infamous climate change denier has referred to the invented term. During what [has been described]() as the "dumbest climate conversation of all time" with multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk last month, Trump argued that we should be talking about nuclear warming, not climate change. Musk tried to make sense of the utterance, arguing that "there’s the bad side of nuclear, which is a nuclear war, very bad side." At the time, Trump also argued that melting glaciers would create "more oceanfront property," an equally harebrained argument that has no grounding in reality whatsoever. ## Double Threat It's entirely unclear what the former reality TV host means when he's talking about nuclear warming. Given his [comments during a December interview with *Fox News* host Tucker Carlson](), there's a chance he's referring to the threat of a nuclear war with Russia — which has little to do with the climate crisis. At the time, he referred to nuclear as the "n-word," which usually refers to a different word [sometimes used by Trump's supporters](). "The biggest problem, Trump says, is ‘nuclear warming," *Mother Jones*' David Corn [tweeted]() at the time. "What is he talking about?" "Nuclear warming? Is this along the same lines as when the wind stops blowing your TV goes off?" another user [commented](). "And windmill noise causes cancer?" As always, making any sense of Trump's incoherent rambling is a fool's errand, especially when it comes to the climate crisis. And the same goes for Musk, who has gradually emerged as a full-blown Trump supporter, in spite of leading the charge on the electrification of cars. During his mind-numbing conversation with Trump last month, Musk argued that the only reason we should ditch fossil fuels is that the wells will eventually run dry and that the only fallout would be a rise in "headaches and nausea" due to higher carbon dioxide levels. He also asserted that it was wrong to "vilify" the oil and gas industry, yet another idiotic argument given the industry's [massive contributions to global emissions](). "It is sad that Elon Musk has become a climate change denier, but that’s what he is," climate scientist Micahel Mann [told *The Guardian*]() last month. "He’s literally denying what the science has to say here." **More on climate denial:** *[Scientists Discover the Villains Destroying the Planet]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()