Trump Mocked as ‘Savage Idiot’ Over Hairspray Rant

President Donald Trump said concerns about hairspray are exaggerated compared with environmental issues such as ozone depletion and climate change. Trump has long complained that hairsprays became ineffective after the ban on chemical compounds called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which scientists say deplete the ozone layer.

On February 21, Trump again slammed environmentalists for calling hairspray an environmental hazard. He spoke at the National Governors Association dinner, where he highlighted cooperation with Utah Governor Spencer Cox to address the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake.

The lake is currently 6.5 to 7 feet below its minimum healthy elevation of 4,198 feet. During his speech, Trump called the lake’s decline a real environmental problem, unlike hairspray use, which he said poses no threat to the environment.

The 79-year-old president said, “That is what I call a real environmental problem, not using hairspray, and I'm going to ruin the ozone. 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.”

CFCs were banned in hairsprays and most aerosol products in the 1970s after scientific evidence showed they were damaging the ozone layer, a protective atmospheric layer that shields Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. In 1987, all countries in the United Nations signed a treaty to stop producing ozone-depleting substances.

As a result, the ozone layer is on its way to recovery, and the ozone hole over Antarctica is shrinking each year. However, Trump has often expressed his disappointment with hairsprays since the removal of CFCs.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump made similar remarks at a rally in Charleston, “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.”

Trump‘s comments have not gone down well with social media users, as one individual wrote on X, “His brain is stuck in the 1980s. That battle was won last century Donald. You lost.” Another commented, “He's been complaining about hairspray for over a decade now. Maybe your hair would look better if you didn't rely on it so much.”

One user criticized the president by writing, “There may not be someone more aggressively ignorant in the whole of human existence than Donald Trump. Maybe one of his followers but it’s probably still him.”

Trump’s statements are in line with his claims that climate change is a hoax. During his second term, the president has passed several orders that experts believe could be detrimental to the environment.

In January 2026, he signed a memorandum directing the US to withdraw from multiple environmental protection organizations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Then, in February, he revoked the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, which legally determined that six greenhouse gases threatened public health.