'Bird killer': Trump slammed for 'hypocrisy' over wind farm vendetta

Donald Trump's apparent obsession with protecting birds from wind turbines is nothing more than a petty grudge masquerading as environmental concern, critics say.

During a recent appearance with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump's Scottish golf course, the president ranted that windmills are "a disaster" that "kill all your birds." His Interior Secretary Doug Burgum quickly fell in line, tweeting that "wind projects are known to kill eagles" while announcing investigations into turbine impacts on bird populations.

But Trump's bird crusade is rooted in pure spite. wrote The National Republic's Liza Featherstone. The former president has harbored a grudge against wind power since 2012, when plans emerged for a wind farm near his Aberdeen golf course. "They're horrible looking structures," Trump complained at the time. "They make noise, they kill birds by the thousands." He sued unsuccessfully to block the project, which was completed in 2018.

The hypocrisy is staggering, Featherstone wrote in her article titled "Trump is a bird killer."

Just four months ago, Trump called for gutting the very Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act that Burgum now claims to champion. His administration is simultaneously weakening the Endangered Species Act and diluting the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

The facts demolish Trump's anti-wind narrative, Featherstone wrote. Wind turbines cause less than 0.01 percent of human-caused bird deaths—far fewer than cats, buildings, or the fossil fuel industry Trump champions. Coal destroys bird habitat while oil and gas infrastructure kills far more birds than turbines.

"The biggest threat to birds by far is climate change," environmental experts note, pointing to Audubon Society estimates that two-thirds of American bird species could face extinction from unchecked global warming.

Trump's bird protection theater is "petty, self-serving, cynical, and hypocritical," Featherstone wrote — and stem from him being unable to stop a wind farm near his "tacky golf courses."