Donald Trump adores coal power, coal power plants, and especially coal miners. Sure, burning coal is catastrophically bad for the planet, but it also infuriates his political enemies, so he’s all for it.
During his campaigns, he promised coal miners he’d revitalize their industry: “all those plants that have been closed are going to be opened if they’re modern enough, or they’ll be ripped down and brand-new ones will be built, and we’re going to put the miners back to work.”
He glowingly described coal miners as “great American patriots”, saying, “You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job, and they’d be unhappy. They want to mine coal. That’s what they love to do.” Questionable, but whatever.
Unfortunately for coal miners, the exact opposite happened. Coal mining jobs vastly decreased during his first term, with coal production falling to a 43-year low in 2019. Now it seems even Trump’s praise for the miners themselves was false, as due to his policies, many of them are facing miserable deaths thanks to him.
The root of the current situation now was Elon Musk’s chaotic tenure at DOGE, which quickly began tearing apart the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and its black lung monitoring program.
A hellish disease
Black lung (aka coal workers’ pneumoconiosis) is severe lung damage from exposure to fine silica particles generated by drilling through rock. It’s a painful, miserable disease, causing lung tissue scarring, reduced lung function, and symptoms like chronic cough, shortness of breath, and, in severe cases, death by respiratory failure, like being smothered by your own body.
Musk’s axe was ultimately stayed as a result of a class action lawsuit by West Virginia coal miners, but despite this victory, they’re still facing a miserable future, as by now, the nation was supposed to have implemented a Mine Safety and Health Administration rule designed to lower miners’ exposure to the black lung-causing dust.
The Trump Labor Department has repeatedly delayed implementation of this rule, to the horror of the miners forced to breathe in this toxic substance. United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil E. Roberts said:
“This delay is simply a death sentence for more miners. The fact that an industry association with no stake in coal mining can hold up lifesaving protections for coal miners is outrageous. The Department of Labor and MSHA should be fighting to implement this rule immediately, not kicking enforcement down the road yet again. Every day they delay, more miners get sick, and more miners die. That’s the truth.”
For Trump, it seems coal miners represent nothing except a nice photo opportunity and a campaign stop. Many of them will have voted him into office in the hopes he genuinely cared about their plight. But they, like so many others, have now learned that Donald Trump cares about one thing: Donald Trump.
