Trump Amplifies Climate Myths in Bid to Undermine Harris

AFP/APP

Washington: The current US presidential race, marked by intense bitterness, name-calling, and attack ads, has left little room for substantive discussions on climate change, even as the world faces unprecedented heat and disasters.

With Donald Trump now competing against Kamala Harris instead of Joe Biden, the former president has used recent rallies to spread misinformation and memes, particularly on X, including fictional claims about bans on red meat and gas stoves. 

The goal? To undermine Harris.

“Kamala called for slashing consumption of red meat to fight climate change,” Trump asserted during a July 27 rally in Minnesota. 

He went further, suggesting that the Democratic nominee would “get rid of all cows… and I guess that at some point, they’ll go after the humans,” echoing “depopulation” conspiracy theories that have circulated in right-wing circles since Harris addressed “climate anxiety” among younger generations at a White House press conference last year.

J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, amplified these claims in an August 3 speech in Atlanta, alleging that Harris “wants to take away your gas stoves, she even wants to take away your ability to eat red meat.”

These climate myths have gained traction on X, fueled by conservative commentators in swing states and MAGA accounts with large followings. However, Harris has never made such campaign promises.

She has cooked with a gas stove herself and mentioned in a 2019 environmental panel that she “love(s) cheeseburgers from time to time,” though she has supported the idea of updating dietary guidelines.

“A tried-and-true tactic in politics is to misrepresent your opponent’s positions to make them sound extreme and unacceptable. Trump and Vance are doing exactly that with Vice President Harris’s positions on climate action,” said Edward Maibach, director of George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication.