Zachary Erdeljac appeared in a White House propaganda/gaslighting video that touted The Fascist Felon’s goal to bring back coal. The event at the April 8 coal-themed White House event featured hard-hatted men in reflective clothing praising the (p)resident’s new energy executive orders and tariffs. The White House described these individuals as “REAL AMERICANS”—coal miners who welcomed the tariffs as job-saving measures. Zach wore a red MAGA(t) hard hat and a Core Natural Resources safety shirt with his name on it, but he’s actually a supervisor—not a frontline coal miner.
FACT FOCUS: Trump misrepresents facts about coal as he signs executive orders to boost its use
- CLAIM: “I call it beautiful, clean coal. I told my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful, clean before it.”
- THE FACTS: The production of coal is cleaner now than it has been historically, but that doesn’t mean it’s clean.
- Planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from the coal industry have decreased over the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Energy lobbyist Scott Segal said that “the relative statement that coal-fired electricity is cleaner than ever before is true, particularly when emissions are measured per unit of electricity produced.”
- TRUMP: “It’s cheap, incredibly efficient, high density and it’s almost indestructible.”
- THE FACTS: Coal is one of the most expensive sources of new power generation. New coal plants would produce electricity at nearly $90 per megawatt hour on average, though no one in the U.S. is currently building or planning to build a new coal plant, according to estimates from the EIA.
- TRUMP: “They’re opening up coal, coal plants all over Germany.”
- THE FACTS: That’s not accurate. According to Germany’s economy ministry, 18 coal-fired power plants were shut down in 2024. “No new coal-fired power plants will be built,” a spokesman for the ministry said Wednesday in response to a question about Trump’s claims. The spokesperson noted the country plans to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest.
- Germany did bring some coal-fired plants back online in 2022 and 2023 to deal with natural gas shortages after Russia invaded Ukraine. The government allowed up to six gigawatts of coal-fired power plants to return from the reserve to the market for a limited period of time. They were taken offline by the end of March 2024, according to Agora Energiewende, a Berlin-based climate policy think tank.
