Harrison Ford, the legendary actor best known for his roles as Indiana Jones and Han Solo, has once again thrust himself into the center of the climate change debate—this time by leveling fierce criticism at President Donald Trump’s environmental record. In a candid interview with The Guardian published on November 3, 2025, Ford, now 83, didn’t mince words about his fears for the planet and his deep frustration with the Trump administration’s approach to climate policy.
Ford’s remarks come at a time when the stakes for environmental policy have arguably never been higher. Trump, who began his second term as president in January 2025 at the age of 79, has wasted little time in rolling back many of the climate initiatives put in place by previous administrations. According to The Guardian and the Daily Mail, Trump’s government has cut funding for clean energy projects, encouraged fossil fuel development, and put more than 1,000 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees, including climate scientists, on immediate notice. Even more controversially, on his first day back in office, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement—a move that had already been reversed once before by President Biden.
For Ford, these policy decisions are not just misguided—they are dangerous. “He doesn’t have any policies, he has whims. It scares the st out of me. The ignorance, the hubris, the lies, the perfidy. [Trump] knows better, but he’s an instrument of the status quo and he’s making money, hand over fist, while the world goes to hell in a handbasket. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know of a greater criminal in history,” Ford told The Guardian. The actor’s blunt language underscored the depth of his concern, and his view that Trump’s actions are not simply political missteps but profound moral failings.
Ford’s criticisms did not stop at policy. He also took aim at Trump’s rhetoric and personal motivations, particularly the president’s vocal skepticism of climate science. Trump has long dismissed climate change as a hoax, and just two months ago, he called it “the greatest con job in the world” during an address to the United Nations General Assembly. He has also openly derided renewable energy initiatives, going so far as to urge the United Kingdom to remove its “ugly” wind turbines. Responding to this, Ford quipped, “He has just not seen a gold one,” poking fun at what he sees as Trump’s fixation on wealth and aesthetics over substance.
Yet, Ford is not without his own critics. The actor’s environmental advocacy has sometimes been overshadowed by his personal carbon footprint. As reported by Fox News and cited by the Daily Mail, Ford owns a Cessna Citation Sovereign private jet—a luxury that, in 2022 alone, was responsible for emitting about 35 metric tons of carbon dioxide over roughly 5,284 miles in less than two months. That’s more carbon than the average American releases in two years, and more than a typical person worldwide emits over nine years. Ford’s passion for flight is well known, but it has drawn accusations of hypocrisy from some quarters. Nevertheless, Ford remains undeterred, focusing instead on the larger picture and the need for collective action.
Ford’s environmental activism is not a recent development. He has been speaking out about climate change for decades, and his warnings have, in his view, been vindicated by recent events. “I have been preaching this stuff for 30 years. Everything we’ve said about climate change has come true. Why is that not sufficient that it alarms people that they change behaviors? Because of the entrenched status quo,” Ford lamented in his interview. His personal experience with climate-related disasters adds weight to his words: he was forced to evacuate his Brentwood, Los Angeles home due to wildfires that he believes were exacerbated by rising temperatures linked to global warming.
Despite his criticism of the current administration and the slow pace of progress, Ford remains cautiously optimistic about humanity’s ability to confront the climate crisis. “He’s losing ground because everything he says is a lie,” Ford said of Trump’s fossil-fuel-driven agenda. “I’m confident we can mitigate against [climate change], that we can buy time to change behaviors, to create new technologies, to concentrate more fully on implementation of those policies. But we have to develop the political will and intellectual sophistication to realize that we human beings are capable of change. We are incredibly adaptive, we are incredibly inventive. If we concentrate on a problem, we can fix it most times.”
Ford’s comments came just ahead of his receipt of the E.O. Wilson Legacy Award for Transformative Conservation Leadership in Chicago on October 29, 2025. The honor recognized his long-standing commitment to environmental causes and conservation, even as he continues to grapple with the contradictions of his own lifestyle. The ceremony was a moment of celebration for Ford, but also a reminder of the work still to be done in shifting both public opinion and policy.
Trump’s supporters, for their part, argue that his policies are simply a pragmatic response to economic realities. They contend that rolling back environmental regulations and increasing fossil fuel production is necessary to ensure American energy independence and economic growth. Trump himself has argued that many environmental initiatives are “wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars” and that opening up protected lands for oil and gas drilling will boost the economy. Critics of Ford—and other celebrity activists—often point out what they see as a disconnect between their public advocacy and private behavior, suggesting that true leadership requires personal sacrifice as well as public statements.
Still, Ford’s willingness to speak out has made him a prominent voice in the climate debate, and his words resonate with many who are frustrated by what they see as political inaction. His critique of Trump is not merely about policy differences, but about the fundamental values that should guide leaders in a time of crisis. “It’s that we’ve got people in charge of important s* who don’t believe in science,” Ford said back in 2017, a sentiment that continues to drive his activism today.
As the world inches—sometimes crawls—toward cleaner forms of energy, the clash between advocates like Ford and skeptics like Trump shows no sign of abating. The urgency of the climate crisis, the entrenched interests resisting change, and the personal contradictions of even its most passionate defenders all combine to make this one of the defining battles of our era. Whether Ford’s optimism about humanity’s capacity for adaptation and invention will be borne out remains to be seen, but his voice is one that refuses to be silenced.
