US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he had “won the war” against what he called the “climate change hoax.” In a post on his social media account, Truth Social, Trump said billionaire Bill Gates had “finally admitted he was wrong” about climate change.
“I just won the War on the Climate Change Hoax,” Trump wrote. “Bill Gates has finally admitted that he was completely wrong. It took courage to do so, and for that, we are all grateful.”
Trump’s long-standing denial of climate change
Trump and his supporters have long denied that climate change is real. They often call it a “liberal hoax.” Since returning to power in January 2025, Trump has canceled many environmental policies that previous US presidents had created to fight global warming.
In a speech at the UN General Assembly last year, Trump called climate change “the greatest con job ever.” His campaign was also backed by large donations from oil companies.
What did Bill Gates say?
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shared a long memo earlier this week. In it, he said that while climate change will cause serious problems, it will not destroy humanity. Gates wrote, “People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future.”
He said the world should also focus on fighting poverty and disease, which would help poor countries deal better with the effects of global warming. Gates admitted some people might call him a hypocrite because of his own large carbon footprint. But he said the world has already made progress in cutting emissions and that new technologies can help reduce them even more.
