Donald Trump Thinks Asbestos is Great

In June we shared a post from Mother Jones “Trump Files”, a series of posts that highlight the business mogul and Republican Presidential Candidate’s many oddities from over the years.

We previously discussed how, in 1997, Trump claimed that the Mafia was behind the campaign to villainize asbestos. As recently as 2012, he alleged via Twitter that the World Trade Towers would not have burned down if they had been made with asbestos.

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 300 to 400 tons of asbestos fibers were used to construct the World Trade Center, and an analysis of the dust that blanketed a region of several square miles following the towers collapse revealed four percent asbestos in some areas.

Mother Jones shared the following footage of Trump speaking before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2005.

“In New York City, we have a lot of asbestos buildings, and there’s a whole lot of debate about asbestos, I mean, a lot of people could say that if the World Trade Towers had asbestos, it wouldn’t have burned down, it wouldn’t have melted, okay.

A lot of people think asbestos, a lot of people in my industry think that asbestos is the greatest fireproofing material ever, ever made. And I can tell you that I’ve seen tests of asbestos vs. the new material that’s being used, and it’s not even a competition, it’s like a heavyweight champion against a lightweight from high school.

But in your great wisdom, you folks have said asbestos is a horrible material that has to be removed.”

As a Presidential nominee, Trump ignoring the extensive scientific proof of the dangers of asbestos is worrisome. To the hundreds of thousands of American families that have affected by asbestos cancer, it’s downright cruel.