Donald Trump tried to shrug off eco-minded protesters who crashed his Iowa rally Sunday by telling them to “go home to mommy.” (Watch the videos below.)
The activists called the former president a “climate criminal.” When one woman accused him of taking millions from fossil-fuel interests, Trump smiled while supporters booed and tried to drown her out with a “Trump Trump Trump” chant.
“Go home to mommy,” Trump told the demonstrators in a C-SPAN clip posted by media watcher @Acyn. “Your mommy is waiting.”
One particularly loud man held up a sign and screamed that the GOP front-runner was a “climate criminal.” He was shown being escorted out to chants of “USA! USA! USA!” and then given a verbal shove-off by Trump, who was stirring up support for Monday’s Iowa caucus.
“They’ll figure it out,” Trump said in a snippet shared by CBS News’ Olivia Rinaldi. “They’re fighting oil.”
As Trump was joined by GOP North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum at the podium, one of the protesters yelled: “Donald Trump claims to speak for my generation, but he is sold out by oil and gas billionaires. Our homes are burning, our homes are flooding!”
“You are digging a grave with your fossil fuel money!” the woman shouted in a video from the Sunrise Movement, the climate change fighting group that appeared to be the organizer.
Trump has aggressively courted oil industry donors in his bid to regain the White House after he “weakened or wiped out” over 125 environmental rules and policies during his administration, The Washington Post reported.
President Joe Biden has reversed some of Trump’s actions and has advanced measures to move beyond gas, coal and oil.
But Trump has persisted in his climate change denial. Under the battle cry of “DRILL, BABY, DRILL,” he has vowed to increase oil drilling on public lands, and offer tax breaks for oil, gas and coal producers should he win. He also said he would undo Biden’s efforts to promote electric car use.
Trump, who faces four indictments covering election fraud and other crimes, holds a commanding lead in the GOP race and is ahead of Biden in many general election polls.
