Donald Trump poured water from a glass onto the ground during a speech to truckers in Denton, Texas, where he called climate change 'a scam' and referenced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Visit to Texas truckers
President Donald Trump kicked off his tour of staunchly Republican states on Thursday with a visit to truckers in Texas. The president made a stop at a manufacturing plant in Denton to discuss his trade and tariff policies, alongside the Trump administration's efforts to bolster domestic production.
This comes amidst growing economic concerns, with recent polls suggesting his approval rating on economic issues continues to falter. The visit also places Trump squarely in the middle of a fiercely contested Senate race between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom he supports, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Climate change remarks
While addressing the crowd, Trump targeted climate change, indirectly referencing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by stating "we're supposed to be all dead." He also made a gesture with a glass of water during his speech, declaring, "I'm not a big drinker of water." He then proceeded to empty the water onto the ground before continuing his address.
"We're supposed to all be dead. AOC said that, right? That didn't work out because the planet got cooler. In fact, you know, the ice that was melting, it's right now just set a record. It's the biggest ice cube that's ever been in the history of the world," he stated.
"So they changed it from global warming to climate change, because climate change.. if it gets hot, cold, if it rains, if it snows, nobody knows the difference. It's climate change," he continued. "No, it's a scam, and they're doing the scam with data centres, by the way, that's a new thing because they want us to be unsuccessful."
Reactions and context
Users on Threads shared their own reactions, including, "Stupid bastard doesn't know what the base of Diet Coke is" and responding with the clown emoji.
In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez posted on X regarding climate change, writing, "Millennials, and Gen z, and all these folks that come after us, are looking up and we're like 'the world will end in 12 years if we don't address climate change, and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'" Her comments referenced a United Nations-backed climate report, published in 2018, which cautioned that the impacts of climate change would become irreversible and unavoidable unless carbon emissions were controlled within the subsequent 12 years.
Republicans are in a tricky spot ahead of the midterm elections, with Trump seemingly pulling down their figures, a fact acknowledged by nominee Ken Paxton in recently disclosed audio. "So, to be honest with you, the numbers - when we did that convention - it dropped our numbers," Paxton revealed in an audio snippet shared by The New York Times. "Everybody's numbers dropped. Right now, yeah, not good."
Paxton made these remarks during a private fundraiser in Washington, DC, attended by conservative donors and lobbyists, according to the outlet. Nick Maddux, a senior adviser to Paxton, dismissed the report as "manipulated nonsense from The New York Times to create a story that doesn't exist." Maddux cited polling data showing Paxton leading Talarico, asserting that "every serious pollster will tell you that our numbers have improved since early September" and that Paxton "is going to win this race."
