President Donald Trump told a crowd in Texas on Tuesday that certain solar installations kill animals by heating up enough to fry them. He described the panels as hotter than a stove and said animals that jump onto them do not survive.
“They have solar, some solar, not those big monsters that they put up all over; they kill all the animals,” Trump said, according to The Express. “The animals jump on them and they fry because those black panels are hotter than your stove.”
He continued by criticizing windmills and broader renewable energy efforts. These comments match statements he made last year while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, when he argued that the United Kingdom should prioritize oil drilling in the North Sea over green energy projects.
Trump highlights Texas oil refining as gas prices climb
At that time, Trump called the North Sea a valuable asset and said countries were instead installing windmills. “It’s such a valuable asset and instead, they’re putting these stupid windmills all over the place,” he said. He added that each windmill costs a country millions of dollars annually to operate. He called them ugly and bad for the environment, said they kill birds, and stated that they cost a fortune.
He also claimed solar panels take up all the farmland. Trump asked a reporter whether they had seen what happens when a bird lands on the panels. “They fry, because it’s hot… a bird lands on them? It’s over,” he said.
Trump’s Texas stop on Tuesday marked his third visit to the state in a month. The appearances were part of a final push ahead of next week’s midterm elections, aimed at stopping Democrats from securing their first statewide win in more than 30 years.
He held events in Corpus Christi and Lubbock to support Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico. Experts see a strong chance for Talarico to flip Texas, and it would boost the Democrats’ prospects of sweeping the midterms.
Talarico was in Amarillo the same day and described the political system as “broken, corrupt.” He, like Trump and Paxton, was set to appear in Lubbock later. Trump highlighted cultural issues while describing Talarico as too liberal for Texas.
With gas prices rising during the war in Iran, he also pointed to an earlier military operation in Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefly joined him on stage as Trump discussed an agreement for more Venezuelan crude oil to be refined in Texas.
“We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” Trump said in Corpus Christi. He has spent the closing days of the midterms campaigning in states he won in 2024 that now face competitive Democratic candidates.
In the past week, he visited Mississippi, Michigan, Georgia, Florida, and Iowa. His remaining stops include Ohio, South Carolina, Florida, Kansas, and another trip to Iowa.
The travel focuses on states where turnout among the most loyal Republican voters is seen as important. Texas has drawn particular attention because of the current political climate for Republicans and Paxton’s history of ethical and legal issues.
Elon Musk posted on X that “Talarico is lunatic left,” reaching his 241 million followers amid other recent messages about the race. Musk has located Tesla, SpaceX, and himself in Texas and has directed at least $158 million toward defeating Talarico.
That money went to the Senate Leadership Fund, which then transferred the same amount to the Texas PAC, the largest backer of Paxton’s campaign. Advertising spending in the race has exceeded $563 million across the primary and general elections, according to the firm AdImpact.
Published: Oct 28, 2026 11:00 am