Donald Trump Tilting at Windmills: A Long Fight, Explained – Newsweek

He isan unseriousmanone who exists in a universe constructed in his mind, the choices he makes dictated by a reality invisible to the world around him. Everything that he believes is outdated, tied to a past that the culture-at-large gladly buried long ago.

I'm talking, of course, aboutMiguel de Cervantes's classicprotagonist, Don Quixote.

There's a famous passage in the novelDon Quixote, published in two parts in the early 17th century,in which the herojousts withor tilts atwindmills. You see, Don Quixote believes he is a knight, the last of a dying breed preserving the chivalrous code. In reality, he has lost his mind and the knights died off long ago.Regardless, whileout on an adventure, Don Quixote spotsthese "monstrous giants" and tells his oft-befuddled compatriot Sancho Panza thatit is his duty to battle themand, of course, to take their riches.

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His pal Sancho replies: "What you see over there aren't giantsthey're windmills; and what seems to be arms are the sails that rotate the millstone when they're turned by the wind." But Don Quixote is unmoved by reality, and, in turn, fights the windmills.

The phrase "tilting at windmills" has since entered the lexicon as an expression usedto describeone who battles imagined enemies, a person vigorously chasing down something despite reality's best efforts to dissuade him or her from the task.

Like many things, this brings us to President Donald Trump, who hasnot quite literally, but almostliterallytiltled at windmills.

Trump, who Thursday announcedthe U.S.would back out of the landmark Paris accord that unified the world in fighting climate change, has long had a bone to pick with wind turbines. You've probably seen them somewhere: They're the hulking, stark-white, tri-bladedwindmillsthat convert wind into electricalpower.

While the wind turbines provideclean power, Trump has routinely battled them largely because he thought they looked unsightly next to his posh golf courses. He even took his fight against windmills all the way to the Britain's highest court.Trump lost.

But the fight didn't stopnoteven after he won the election on November8. Days later,Trump urged British alliesto oppose the sorts of wind farms that would spoil his immaculate views.

As with most of hisenemies, the president has tweetedand tweeted oftenabout the wind turbines he so loathes. He hascited bird deaths, which do happen (at a far lower rate compared tothings like cellphone towers), butsome environmentalists say the benefits wind turbines provide withgreen energy would end up saving many more birds from global warming than they kill. He has said they cause health problems and, to be fair, some people who live or work in close proximity to turbines have described annoyance and issues like headaches, sleep disturbance and anxiety (many wind farms are offshore, however). He has claimed they have a warming effect on the climate (they do not). He hascalled them ugly. He even pleaded with Rachel Maddow and tweeted a link to the Huffington Post.

The now-president and the monstrous giants have been jousting for years in a fight much of the world has forgotten. Presented belowis Trump tilting at windmills:

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Donald Trump Tilting at Windmills: A Long Fight, Explained - Newsweek