Donald Trump has taken aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s government just weeks after the two leaders appeared to put the “special relationship” back on track with a much-lauded trade deal.
The US president hit out at one of the Labour leader’s flagship strategies, on net zero, telling him to “stop with the costly and unsightly windmills” and instead forge ahead with more drilling for oil in the North Sea.
Mr Trump, who has been vocal in his opposition to wind turbines for many years, used a post on his social media platform Truth Social to say: “Our negotiated deal with the United Kingdom is working out well for all.
“I strongly recommend to them, however, that in order to get their Energy Costs down, they stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivize modernized drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lay waiting to be taken.”
Mr Trump, who owns a golf course in Aberdeenshire, added that there was a “century of drilling left, with Aberdeen as the hub”.
He also accused the UK’s “old-fashioned tax system” of acting as a disincentive to drilling, and said that if it were instead encouraged, “Energy Costs would go WAY DOWN, and fast!”
President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he is not in favour of wind energy, and has previously ranted about “big windmills” that “destroy everybody’s property values, kill all the birds”.
He has claimed they are unreliable energy sources, once bizarrely saying, “and then, all of a sudden, it stops; the wind and the televisions go off. And your wives and husbands say, ‘Darling, I want to watch Donald Trump on television tonight. But the wind stopped blowing and I can’t watch. There’s no electricity in the house, darling’.”
Mr Trump was also involved in a long-running campaign against plans for wind turbines off the Aberdeenshire coast, which he claimed would spoil the view from his Trump International Golf Links in Balmedie.
In 2019, his company was ordered to pay almost £250,000 to the Scottish government following the bitter dispute over the 11-turbine wind farm.
Labour wants to end North Sea oil and gas production, with a focus on wind and solar farms instead.
But oil and gas workers in Aberdeen recently told a commission into how the transition can be done justly that they fear a “cliff edge” for their livelihoods.
Earlier this month, Downing Street stuck by the plans as it rejected Sir Tony Blair’s claim that “hysteria” was playing a part in the international debate on climate change, after the former prime minister criticised efforts to limit fossil fuels.
In a foreword to a report by his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), the New Labour prime minister had argued the current climate approach “isn’t working”.
The intervention was seized upon by political opponents as an attack on Sir Keir’s plans to cut carbon emissions and achieve net zero by 2050. But Sir Tony later clarified that Labour’s approach to tackling the climate crisis was the right one.
Just hours before Mr Trump’s latest intervention, energy regulator Ofgem confirmed that household energy bills will fall by around 7 per cent from July, bringing a typical bill down by £129 to £1,720 a year. That came after the president’s aggressive tariff plans led to a significant slump in gas and oil prices.
The news will come as a relief for many households, who suffered through an “awful April” of bill rises, including Ofgem’s last 6.4 per cent price cap increase.
In response to Mr Trump, James Alexander, CEO of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, said: “Investors want the UK to prioritise the transition to a green economy, which would unlock hundreds of billions in private investment from around the world, creating jobs and economic growth.
“Backing new fossil fuel projects now would send the wrong message, with renewables having overtaken oil and gas as the cheaper alternative, and with demand projections changing, too.”
