More from the 2018 article...
... Some of President Trump's most cartoonishly evil policy initiatives have come at the expense of the environment. In the past few months alone, his administration has lifted a ban importing big-game hunting trophies, sought to repeal California emissions standards and released a plan to gut the Endangered Species Act. It's all done in the name of unmitigated capitalism, to which the president clearly feels the environment is beholden. So too, apparently, is the health of Americans, as the Environmental Protection Agency is now allowing asbestos to be legally used in construction. ...
As an amoral New York City real estate developer, Trump has long supported the use of asbestos. In his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback, the future president wrote that asbestos is "100 percent safe, once applied," despite the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the contrary. Here's what else Trump had to say about the carcinogen: ...
Trump has also on multiple occasions blamed the collapse of the two World Trade Center towers on the absence of asbestos. In June, All in With Chris Hayes aired a clip of Trump defending the material before Congress in 2005. "A lot of people say that if the World Trade Center had asbestos is wouldn't have burned down, it's wouldn't have melted. OK?," he said. ...
It's ironic, then, that Trump's praise of asbestos has centered around its fireproofing capabilities. Irony died when Trump was elected, though, and now that he is president he no longer has to work the phones to get environmental- or health-related regulations slashed; he can just tell the lackeys he installed at the EPA to go ahead and do it, which they have.
As with many of his more insidious actions as president, there's a Russia connection. As the Washington Post points out, until recently, 95 percent of asbestos used in the United States came from Brazil, while the rest came from Russia. But the South American nation recently banned the mining and sale of the toxic substance, opening the door for Russia to fill the gap, which will be even larger if the U.S. resumes using the carcinogen in building materials. Russian asbestos manufacturers are thrilled. In July, the Russian company Uralasbest posted an image of its asbestos packaging, which features a smirking President Trump.
"Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States," the packaging reads. ...
[emphasis mine]
