Donald Trump Calls Climate Change A Hoax, But Worries It Could Hurt His Golf Course

First Posted: May 25, 2016 05:34 AM EDT

For someone who says that climate change is a hoax, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is pretty intent on protecting one of his Irish golf courses from its effects.

In a report by Time magazine, the Trump International Hotel in Ireland applied for a permit too build a seawall on its golf course as a preventative measure against erosion. The permit application is supposed to include an environmental-impact statement that said the wall would be needed to combat "global warming and its effects."

The irony is not lost on the media. Trump has repeatedly called global warming a "total hoax," causing climate scientists and activists to worry about the country should Donald Trump get elected for president. The Guardian also reported that Trump has previously called climate change "bullshit" and a con, and at some point even claimed it a joke invented by the Chinese to make US manufacturing less competitive.

He also said that it was President Barack Obama's strategy, trying "to solve a problem that I don't think in any major fashion exists."

According to ABC News, the application was filed on May 10, 2016, and stated, "The rising sea levels and increased storm frequency and wave energy associated with global warming can increase the rate of erosion, wave damage, coastal flooding, etc."

The document also specified that the golf course's location along the Atlantic coast is identified as a risk issue due to coastal erosion, which is expected to accelerate as climate change worsens.

Still, the possibility of Trump's golf course disappearing is not a hoax: shortly before the business mogul bought it in 2014, a storm carried off eight meters of the beach - so a few more big storms and the course just might disappear.

Trump's inconsistency when it comes to his beliefs seem to disappear for the sake of his business interests, but does this move mean that he secretly accepts global warming, or is he just pretending to believe it in order to get the needed sea-wall built?