Trump regularly says stuff that would have your boss asking "is this guy up to the task?" even if your job wasn't running a nation of 327 million people.
In a winter tradition, he regularly claims that global warming backed up by years and years of scientific evidence is nonsense because it's a bit nippy in Texas. Yesterday, he forgot (or, for reasons best known to himself, chose to claim) amongst other things, that his father (who was born in New York) was born in Germany.
But we've got to admit, even we were taken back by his latest foray into science. Trump, who is no fan of renewable and environmentally-friendly wind-generated power, claimed in a now widely-mocked speech that the noise from windmills causes cancer.
"'Hillary wanted to put up wind, wind," he said during the speech.
"If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations; your house just went down 75% in value. And they say the noise causes cancer."
He goes on to make a windmill sound so accurate the audience will probably now need chemo.
It's no secret that Trump dislikes (read: doesn't understand) wind power, and regularly says unsubstantiated claims to back up his preference for unsustainable fossil fuels. Last year he called turbines "bird killers" even though studies into bird deaths conclude that they kill far fewer birds per energy produced than traditional power.
"Wind farms and nuclear power stations are responsible each for between 0.3 and 0.4 fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil-fuelled power stations are responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh," according to one paper.
But to claim that noise of any kind causes cancer is a new level of absurdity, that will needlessly worry people who still believe the president when he speaks.
For the avoidance of doubt: Wind turbine noise will not cause cancer. The sound of whistling wind will not cause cancer. Someone saying to you "I hope you get cancer" through a loudspeaker will not cause cancer. Even Ed Sheeran albums on repeat will not cause cancer, because no noise whatsoever can cause cancer.
Pollution caused by burning fossil fuels, on the other hand, causes an estimated 8.8 million deaths a year, including around 161,000 deaths from lung cancer.
Scientists and the public were quick to mock Trump for his latest bizarre claim.
"I hear the windmill blows the Cancer into you," one Twitter user wrote.
Another pointed out you should know what you're lying about if you're going to lie.
People expressed frustration that nothing anyone says will change a thing, the president of the USA will continue to say scary and unscientific things, and his millions of fans believe him. It's all pretty infuriating.
As a palate cleanser, please enjoy this short story a journalist shared about the positive impact wind turbines can have on the people using them.
