Trump: I have a ‘natural instinct for science’ when it comes to climate change

President Trump this week said he has a “natural instinct for science” while defending his stance on climate change.

Trump, who spoke with the Associated Press Tuesday in an interview published the next day, said he agrees that the climate is changing but contended that it “goes back and forth, back and forth.” 

{mosads}”…You have scientists on both sides of the issue. And I agree the climate changes, but it goes back and forth, back and forth. So we’ll see,” Trump told the news outlet. 

Pressed about whether climate change was becoming irreversible, Trump doubled down on his claim that there were scientists on “both sides of it.”     

“I mean, you have scientists on both sides of it. My uncle was a great professor at [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] for many years, Dr. John Trump. And I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture,” Trump said.

The president made similar remarks in an interview Sunday on “60 Minutes,” during which he said he wasn’t convinced that climate change was being driven by humans, but “something’s changing and it’ll change back again.” 

Asked about his remarks on “60 Minutes” by the AP, Trump said he wants “crystal clear water” and “the cleanest air on the planet,” but said he doesn’t want to “sacrifice the economic well-being of our country for something that nobody really knows.”

Trump’s comments come a week after a United Nations panel released a report predicting dire consequences for the global environment. The report noted that climate change could have catastrophic outcomes in the coming years if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t cut drastically by 2030.

Trump has denied climate change and claimed it was “created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive.”