WASHINGTON — President Trump has asked the European Union to get rid of the “ugly windmills” littering its landscape while pushing its 27 member nations to buy $750 billion in US energy, he told Post columnist Miranda Devine.
“This is beautiful Europe that you know and I know so well, and I told them they have to stop that — they have to stop windmills all over the place, too,” Trump said on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” which drops Wednesday.
“You go around, you look at these beautiful valleys and beautiful hills and mountains, and you got windmills all over the place,” Trump said, describing how he came face to face with what he considers eyesores while golfing at his Turnberry resort on the west coast of Scotland this past weekend.
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“I’m looking down the 18th hole — and Turnberry is, I think, probably the best course in the world, it’s considered that by many people, and it’s had four Open Championships, etc. — and I’m looking down, and in the distance, and it’s a pretty far distance, but it doesn’t matter, these things are massive, and you’re looking at these ugly windmills, and it’s a shame. It’s really a shame,” he said.
The president accused environmentalists clamoring for the renewable energy source of carrying out a “con job” on the public.
“It’s really hurting — you know, it’s a con job saying the environmentalists want it, because I can’t believe they really want it,” he said. “It kills the birds, ruins the look, they’re noisy. If you see them from your house, your house is worth like 50% or more less. I just think it’s a very bad thing.”
Approximately 366,000 birds were killed by wind turbines just in the US in 2012, according to an average of studies calculated by the American Bird Conservatory — but the number of windmills produced domestically has soared by 47% since.
As of 2021, there were more than 65,000 turbines in the US — while Europe features more than 100,000 turbines.
Homes located near the turbines can see their value deflated by around 1%, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2024.
“In every way, it’s bad,” Trump said of the turbines. “And you have to subsidize them. They cost money. When you put them up, they cost money. Energy is supposed to make money, it’s not supposed to lose money and they lose a lot of money.
“And they’re going to be abandoned, or they already are; they’re being abandoned and then nobody takes them down. And they just stand up there and rust.”
It’s unclear whether Trump’s request for the EU to nix its windmills was made as part of his larger tariff and investment agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced Sunday.
The American president suggested he had brought up the topic as an afterthought during his 75-minute meeting with von der Leyen.
“Europe has a tremendous migration problem,” Trump told Devine. “So I do mention that, they talk about it, and I talked about immigration first, but I said, ‘And by the way, while you’re at it, get rid of the windmills.’”
The US-EU trade deal included promises of $600 billion in European investment in the US, along with the purchase of American military equipment and $750 billion to buy US energy products.
EU goods will also be slapped with 15% tariffs, while US goods will have zero duties placed on them. Steel and aluminum import taxes on European trading partners will remain at 50%.
“It’s certainly the biggest trade deal ever made. … And I think it’s going to pull a big part of the world together too,” Trump crowed.
“They’re going to invest probably $300 billion for the military, maybe $400 billion in military equipment separately,” he said.
“NATO is going to pay us 100% the cost of all the weapons and everything, so NATO will distribute the weapons, and they’re going to pay for them,” he said. “The European Union now is going to take over all payments that we were giving them, hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Reps for the EU and its delegation in Washington, DC, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
