Trump jabs climate activists by revisiting his hairspray complaint at Governors Dinner

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump couldn’t resist dusting off an old favorite over the weekend. 

Speaking at the National Governors Association dinner on Saturday, February 21, Trump revisited his long-running gripe about aerosol cans and the ozone layer. He told the room he’d rather focus on what he considers “real” environmental issues.

Trump says Great Salt Lake crisis is the 'real environmental problem', not hairspray

While discussing his work with Utah Governor Spencer Cox on the climate change-induced crisis facing the Great Salt Lake, Trump called the situation a “real environmental problem.”

“When I use hairspray,” Trump said, he’s told he is “going to ruin the ozone.” He then went back to the lake issue. “That is what I call a real environmental problem, not using hairspray, and I'm going to ruin the ozone,” he said. “I am in my apartment in Trump Tower, the building is sealed off. And if I use hairspray, they say, you're creating an environmental hazard.” 

It comes just weeks after the Republican leader reversed the 2009 “endangerment finding,” an Obama-era ruling that formed the legal backbone of federal action to curb harmful emissions.

That finding concluded that several greenhouse gases posed a threat to public health, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that were once common in aerosol products like hairspray.

CFCs were widely cited as a significant factor in the decades-long depletion of Earth’s ozone layer, a thin shield of gas that absorbs most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The global response came in 1987 when an international agreement banning CFCs was signed, eventually by every country in the United Nations.

The White House framed Trump’s rollback of the 2009 ruling as the “largest deregulation in American history,” arguing it would reduce costs for automakers and consumers. Environmental groups pushed back, as did former President Barack Obama.

“Without it, we'll be less safe, less healthy, and less able to fight climate change — all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money,” Obama posted on X (formerly Twitter).

On the other hand, Trump has been airing his aerosol frustrations for more than a decade.

Trump's long-running aerosol argument

In 2015, at a rally in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Trump was not buying the concerns.

“You can't use hairspray because hairspray is going to affect the ozone. I'm trying to figure out," he said. "Listen, I'm in my room in New York City, and I want to put a little spray so that I can [combs hair], okay? But I hear where they don't want me to use hairspray anymore, right? Remember?"

"They said, 'We're destroying the ozone layer.' No more hairspray. I said, 'I'm sitting in an apartment' — and it's sealed! It's beautiful. I don't think anything gets out. And I'm not supposed to be using hairspray,” he lamented.

He took aim at the alternative.

“They want me to use the pump because the other one, which I really like better than going 'bing,' 'bing,' 'bing,' and then it comes out in big globs, right? And it's stuck in your hair and you say, 'Oh my God, I gotta take a shower again. My hair's all screwed up.' Right? I wanna use hairspray. They said, 'Don't use hairspray, it's bad for the ozone.' So I'm sitting in this concealed apartment, this concealed — I really do live in a very nice apartment, right? But it's sealed! It's beautiful! I don't think anything gets out. And I'm not supposed to be using hairspray,” Trump added.

A year later, speaking to coal miners at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, Trump used hairspray as shorthand for what he described as regulatory overreach.

"Give me a little spray," he said. "You know you’re not allowed to use hairspray anymore because it affects the ozone, you know that, right? I said, you mean to tell me, cause you know hairspray’s not like it used to be, it used to be real good. Today you put the hairspray on, it’s good for 12 minutes, right?"

"So if I take hairspray and I spray it in my apartment, which is all sealed, you’re telling me that affects the ozone layer? 'Yes.' I say no way, folks. No way. No way. That’s like a lot of the rules and regulations you people have in the mines, right, it’s the same kind of stuff," Trump futher remarked.