The idea that you can somehow disprove global warming due to a winter storm or a cold snap is a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between climate and weather. Perhaps the best metaphor is claiming that rain during July means the season of summer is a hoax. Yet that’s the argument President Donald Trump just made.
To be clear, over the past 10 years, the average temperature on the entire planet has risen. This can be measured because human beings — not just scientists — have long known how to measure temperature. In fact, since 1901, the average annual temperature has been going up by about 2℉. The start of the 20th century marked a significant global shift, where oil exploration outpaced coal as the primary source of energy.
Oil went on to influence every facet of society. It determined which countries got rich, which wars were worth it, and even to this day, it determines which countries get annexed and which leaders get abducted. At the same time, scientists found that burning these fossil fuels produces CO2 and methane at a rate that trees can’t consume in full.
By extension, this polluted the environment and raised the annual average global temperature. And since the planet is warming, the Arctic is melting and the North polar vortex is swirling into areas it never reached before, creating a complexity that can no longer be defined as just global warming — the global climate is changing in unpredictable ways.
This is all very complicated stuff that the best scientists have spent years trying to explain clearly. Filmmakers have also taken a crack at it through allegories like Don’t Look Up. But at the end of the day, not a single person on Earth has a voice as loud or as influential as Trump, and he uses that voice to capitalize on the confusion by calling climate change a “Chinese hoax” or a “con job.”
On social media, people were calling out the White House for misinformation that made it seem like global warming means it gets hotter everywhere at all times. In another post, Trump was shown taking over Greenland, walking side by side with a penguin in an AI-generated photo. Someone reminded them that penguins are not native to Greenland, and another user said the administration was “cosplaying geniuses” to their “dumb” followers.
There are no penguins in Greenland. All Penguins live in the southern hemisphere except one species from the Galapagos Islands.
— PatriotTakes
Perhaps you shouldn’t have dismantled the Department of Education so quickly. https://t.co/aDroJeLycP(@patriottakes) January 23, 2026
They actually think Global Warming means everything gets hotter
— Ash'Ley Rushin (@rushgotjokes) January 23, 2026pic.twitter.com/LfOHM6lL6c
This Administration is full of some of the dumbest people in the history of this country, cosplaying as geniuses to their equally dumb sheep followers. So sad.
— John Bourscheid(@johnbourscheid) January 23, 2026
Calling Trump supporters dumb is probably not the best move, because it only deepens division. But the sentiment is right: Trump is preying on ignorance. After all, this is the same man who once shouted at a rally, “I love the poorly educated.” When he says “con job,” the likelihood is that he is projecting.
Trump is currently hosting a meeting with oil barons at the White House on how to exploit Venezuelan oil. He has a team of some of the best advisers on planet Earth — he can get genius advice on the matter anytime he wants, and he probably already has. And reportedly, as the globe continues to warm at its current pace, the rare minerals and fossil fuels in Greenland will become easier to exploit. Which suggests he’s responding to global warming in his own unique way.
Trump knows exactly what he is doing. All evidence points to him caring more about short term financial gain than the long-term welfare of the planet.
