Trump confuses weather with climate change again: 'Wouldn’t be bad to have a little good old fashioned Global Warming right now!'

US president has long history of denying scientific consensus

Donald Trump has again confused weather with climate change, suggesting the US would benefit from “a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now” amid forecasts of snow and cold conditions.

Little more than two months since a similarly misleading conflation, the president tweeted: “Be careful and try staying in your house. Large parts of the Country are suffering from tremendous amounts of snow and near record setting cold.

“Amazing how big this system is. Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!”

In November, Mr Trump conflated seasonal weather with climate change, suggesting chilly conditions meant global warming wasn’t real.

“Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global Warming?” he tweeted.

Mr Trump’s latest claim also echoed another winter tweet in 2017, in which he said America would benefit from “a little bit of that good old global warming” when much of the US was inundated with snow.

The 72-year-old has long history of denying the scientific consensus on climate change. He once claimed the phenomenon was a Chinese hoax intended to hurt American exports.

In October, Mr Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes he thought that although the climate might be changing, the climate “could very well go back”.

Nasa has a web page dedicated to making clear the basic distinction between weather and climate. “The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time,” it states.

“Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere ‘behaves’ over relatively long periods of time.”

Mr Trump’s views are also at odds with the White House’s own National Climate Assessment.

A winter storm is currently bringing some of the coldest temperatures of the season to the east coast. The Weather Channel reports parts of upstate New York had up to 11in of snow overnight.

Many major cities such as New York City and Boston were spared major snowfall. But a mix of rain and dropping temperatures wreaked havoc on air travel with nearly 5,000 flights cancelled across the country on Sunday.

In a series of Sunday morning tweets, the president addressed the border wall dispute and government shutdown, attacking Nancy Pelosi as a “Radical Democrat”.

He also claimed, without providing any evidence, that “my poll numbers with Hispanics has gone up 19%, to 50%. That is because they know the Border issue better than anyone, and they want Security, which can only be gotten with a Wall.”