Trump on conservation: ‘What is this trillion trees bullshit?’

Fresno CA

Description

Former President Donald Trump’s disdain for environmental and climate policies was no secret during his time in the White House. But a new memoir, by his son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner, puts a finer point on his conservation approach. “What is this trillion trees bullshit?” Mr Trump demanded, while looking through a keynote speech he was set to make at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2020. Mr Kushner explains that his father-in-law had come across a line in the speech that pledged America’s support for an initiative to plant one trillion trees around the world by 2050. The initiative is part of a global push for nature-based solutions to tackle the climate crisis, as forests are known to effectively sequester carbon and be havens for biodiversity. “Are you trying to push more liberal shit on me?” Mr Trump then asked, according to the book, Breaking History, which published on Tuesday. Mr Kushner wrote that he responded by appealing to his father-in-law’s often touted support for “clean air and clean water”, calling the trillion trees initiative a “smart idea”.