During the briefing with state and federal officials, California Governor Gavin Newsom told the president: “We feel very strongly the hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting dryer.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 14, 2020
“Something has happened to the plumbing of the world, and we come from a perspective, humbly, that we assert that the science is in, and the observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real. Please respect the difference of opinion out here with respect to the fundamental issue of climate change,” Newsom added, to which Trump responded “absolutely” before adding a few moments later: “It will start getting cooler, you just watch.”
When one of Newsom’s top aides retorted that science disagrees with Trump’s statement, the president responded: “I don’t think science knows.”
Trump’s comments were met with widespread backlash from Twitter users.
“What a fool,” one user commented on a video of the exchange shared online.
— Ward Q. Normal (@WardQNormal) September 14, 2020
— DougZ (@Doug_Zbi) September 14, 2020
— Johanna Beatty (@yoyobeatty) September 14, 2020
“People took medical advice from anti science man,” another pointed out.
“He thinks climate and weather are the same thing,” a third added.
Before Trump made his comments, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s response to climate change in a speech near his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
"The impacts of climate change don't pick and choose. That's because it's not a partisan phenomenon. It's science. And our response should be the same, grounded in science. Acting together, all of us. But like with our federal response to COVID-19, a lack of a national strategy on climate, on climate change overall, leaves us with a patchwork of solutions and made worse by the changes this administration has made," Biden said.
Biden’s latest comments come as at least 102 major fires have burned across 12 western states in the US, including California, Oregon and Washington, in recent weeks. At least 35 people across the country have died because of the blazes, and dozens of others are missing. In addition, thousands of people have been evacuated as some US cities, like Los Angeles, experience their worst air quality in years.
According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, climate change is a key factor in increasing wildfires in the western US, with the number of wildfires in the region doubling between 1984 and 2015. Wildfire risk is associated with multiple factors including temperature and soil moisture, as well as the presence of potential fuel like trees and shrubs.
“All these factors have strong direct or indirect ties to climate variability and climate change,” the organization notes.
