DAVID BLACKMON: Why Trump’s Wind Diatribe Caught Von Der Leyen By Surprise

President Donald Trump caught European Union President Ursula Von Der Leyen by surprise during a press event announcing the US/EU trade agreement Monday when he launched into a three-minute diatribe targeting the wind industry. Von Der Leyen, a longtime German government official who held a senior position in the Angela Merkel government during its heavy expansion of that country’s vaunted Energiewende experiment, was visibly discomfited as Trump slammed the form of intermittent generation she has done so much to promote throughout her career.

Referring to the industry as “a con job,” Trump added, “It’s very expensive. And in all fairness, Germany tried it, and wind doesn’t work,” as Von Der Leyen’s polite smile faded to a stern frown. But Trump was far from finished.

“You need subsidy for wind. And energy should not need subsidy,” the U.S. President continued in the unique Queens dialect he’s retained since childhood, adding, “It’s the most expensive form of energy. It is no good. They’re made in China, almost all of them.”

For a European for whom English is a second language, Trump’s direct and often shorthand way of expressing his thoughts had to have been thoroughly confusing to the EU President, but the message was clear: On energy and the fading drive to the net-zero fantasy with which the EU and U.K. remain obsessed, Trump and America are moving in the opposite direction.

Trump and the Republican majorities in congress, through a combination of executive orders, aggressive administrative moves, and language to eliminate Biden-era tax breaks and subsidies for wind and solar in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act