Trump’s climate change wall: Billionaire recognizes global warming to protect his golf course

Donald Trump is planning to build another wall, this time to combat rising sea levels and protect his west of Ireland golf course from the effects of global warming - a phenomenon he has repeatedly denied even existed.

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The billionaire businessman and presumptive Republican presidential nominee is applying for planning permission to erect coastal protection works at his golf course, Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland, in Doonbeg, County Clare.

Trump’s firm TIGL Ireland Enterprise Limited has filed an application with Clare County Council which explicitly cites global warming and its consequences — increased erosion due to rising sea levels and extreme weather this century — as the reasons the structure is needed, according to Politico.

This is in spite of the fact Trump doesn’t believe in climate change and has publicly denied its existence on a number of occasions.

Trump has been blasted for his hypocrisy, with former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis among those speaking out against his about turn and “deceitfulness”.

“It’s diabolical, Donald Trump is working to ensure his at-risk properties and his company is trying to figure out how to deal with sea level rise. Meanwhile, he’s saying things to audiences that he must know are not true … You have a soft place in your heart for people who are honestly ignorant, but people who are deceitful, that’s a different thing,” he told Politico.

The Sierra Club, America’s largest grassroots environmental organization, also condemned his actions.

“Donald Trump clearly cares more about the fate of his golf courses than the health of the millions of families already affected by the climate crisis,” said Adam Beitman, a spokesman for the Sierra Club told AP.

By the time of writing, Trump's campaign spokesperson had not commented on the controversy.

Just before Trump completed the purchase of the Irish golf club in 2014, it was hit by a storm, causing significant damage and erosion. Since then Trump has been trying to build coastal protection works to prevent further erosion.

This latest application is for a 1.7 mile (2.8km) barrier, or ‘berm,’ on a sand dune at Carrowmore Bay and includes a 242 page Environmental Impact Statement. It comes after the Irish national planning board denied special approval for the structure.

Trump has previously threatened to close the golf course if the wall is not built. Accounts filed in  2015 revealed the facility made a €2.5m loss in the first year of Trump’s ownership.