Donald Trump Questions Pope Francis on Climate Change: ‘It’s Weather’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the media before a campaign event
Sean Rayford/Getty Images

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump disagrees with Pope Francis’ statements on climate change. Trump tells CNN he simply doesn’t believe in it.

The Pope, in his speech at the White House, said climate change is “a problem which can no longer be left to a future generation.”

Trump was asked during his interview if he agreed with the Pope on climate change.

“I think that clean air is a pressing problem. You want to have clean air, clean water. That’s very important to me, and I’ve won many environmental awards. I am not a believer in climate change,” Trump stated.

Politico reported on Trump’s statement, and added, “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association announced last week that 2015 was the hottest summer on record and predicted that there is a good chance that this year could eclipse last year as the hottest ever recorded.”

Trump adds:

Look, it’s weather. We have bad floods. I can’t watch the evening news anymore. Every time you turn on the evening news, they show there’s a big rain storm, there’s a tornado, there’s this. I mean, you can’t watch the news anymore. And so it’s weather, and it’s been that way for so long.

He said America shouldn’t “imperil the companies within our country” by mandating environmental regulations that would “imperil jobs … actually the middle class, and actually the lower classes are going to be the people with no money.”

“I believe in clean air, immaculate air. I believe in clean water, all of those things, but I don’t think we can destroy our country,” Trump stated.

If America does have the problem of climate change, Trump said, “it’s going to be of the nuclear form because we have incompetent politicians watching over us when it comes to nuclear weapons. That’s our big problem.”

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