John Kerry just branded Donald Trump the “biggest loser” at COP31, accusing him of handing China the clean energy industry while America gets left behind.
The Guardian and Reuters report that Kerry delivered the scathing assessment at the COP31 climate summit in Turkey, where representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered to discuss the climate crisis.
The United States did not send an official delegation.
Kerry made no effort to soften his criticism. After Trump described wind turbines as losers and promised to stop new projects, Kerry suggested that the president should take a hard look at himself.
“He’s the biggest loser we’ve seen in a long time on all of these issues,” Kerry said.
The criticism reflects a stark economic reality.
As Trump attacks wind farms, rolls back environmental safeguards and attempts to rescue the declining coal industry, China is constructing the technologies likely to drive global growth for decades.
According to the International Energy Agency, China produced roughly 70% of the world’s electric cars and more than 80% of its battery cells in 2025. Chinese companies also dominate solar manufacturing.
Those figures represent far more than progress on emissions. They reflect manufacturing plants, employment, capital investment and industrial supply chains that the United States should be competing aggressively to secure.
Trump is instead stripping away federal backing for clean energy, weakening the position of American manufacturers and presenting expanded fossil fuel extraction as though it were a credible strategy for long-term prosperity.
This comes from a president who routinely boasts about outcompeting China. In one of the century’s most consequential industrial contests, however, his policies amount to an American retreat.
Americans will lose opportunities to build and work in emerging industries, while their communities contend with additional pollution. Future generations will inherit the consequences of decisions designed to protect fossil fuel interests.
The United States possesses the workforce, natural resources and technical expertise needed to lead the clean energy transition. What it does not have is a president prepared to pursue that future rather than defend the profits of the fossil fuel industry.