Nicolai Haugsted
The president makes another extraordinary claim about renewable energy without providing scientific evidence.
Donald Trump has never been particularly enthusiastic about renewable energy. Throughout his political career, the president has repeatedly criticized wind turbines and solar farms while championing oil and gas as essential to America’s energy future.
His opposition to green energy resurfaced on Tuesday as he traveled to Texas to campaign for Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
But this time, the president’s remarks went considerably further than his usual complaints about electricity costs and energy production.
During his speech, Trump made an extraordinary claim about what happens when animals come into contact with solar panels.
According to the president, the animals risk being fried alive.
Trump compares solar panels to a kitchen stove
Speaking at a campaign rally in Texas, Trump criticized the expansion of renewable energy and suggested that solar installations pose a serious threat to wildlife.
“They have solar, some solar, not those big monsters that they put up all over, they kill all the animals,” Trump told the crowd.
He then offered an explanation involving the temperature of the panels.
“The animals jump on them and they fry because those black panels are hotter than your stove,” he continued.
The remarks came during a broader criticism of renewable energy, with Trump also discussing wind turbines and their alleged environmental consequences.
However, there is no credible scientific evidence supporting the president’s sweeping claim that ordinary solar panels routinely fry animals alive.
Solar panels can become hot when exposed to direct sunlight, but that does not mean animals are automatically burned to death upon touching them.
Trump has made similar claims about birds before
Tuesday’s comments were not the first time Trump had suggested that renewable energy installations could cook wildlife.
During a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One last year, the president criticized Britain’s investment in renewable energy.
He argued that the United Kingdom should focus on extracting oil from the North Sea instead of expanding its wind energy infrastructure.
“It’s such a valuable asset and instead, they’re putting these stupid windmills all over the place,” Trump said.
He continued by attacking both the cost and appearance of wind turbines.
“Every time you put up a windmill, it costs the country millions of dollars a year to have that horrible thing turn. It’s ugly, it’s bad for the environment, it kills the birds, and beyond that it costs a fortune.”
Trump also claimed that solar panels “take up all the farmlands.”
He then turned his attention to birds supposedly landing on solar installations.
“You ever see what happens to a bird when a bird lands on these?” Trump asked a reporter.
“They fry, because it’s hot… a bird lands on them? It’s over.”
Wind turbines can cause bird fatalities, while large solar installations may affect local wildlife habitats.
However, those documented environmental concerns are different from Trump’s broader assertion that ordinary solar panels routinely burn animals alive.
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Texas becomes a major test for Republicans
The president’s visit to Texas was about considerably more than energy policy.
Trump traveled to the state for the third time in a month as Republicans attempted to defend their longstanding political dominance ahead of the midterms.
Particular attention has focused on the competitive Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico.
Trump appeared in Corpus Christi and Lubbock to support Paxton’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Talarico held his own campaign event in Amarillo, where he criticized what he described as a “broken, corrupt” political system.
The Democratic candidate has sought to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the Republican political establishment and controversies surrounding Paxton’s legal and ethical record.
Trump, meanwhile, attempted to portray Talarico as too liberal for Texas, emphasizing cultural and ideological differences between the candidates.
Trump celebrates American oil production
Energy policy also featured prominently in the president’s other remarks during the Texas visit.
With gasoline prices facing upward pressure amid the war in Iran, Trump chose to highlight an earlier American military operation in Venezuela.
He focused particularly on an arrangement allowing more Venezuelan crude oil to be processed at refineries in Texas.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly joined the president onstage during the visit.
“We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” Trump declared in Corpus Christi.
The comments reinforced the administration’s commitment to fossil fuels, which Trump has consistently presented as essential to American economic strength and energy security.
His criticism of renewable energy remains equally consistent, even though several of his claims about its environmental effects lack supporting evidence.
