Climate Risk

My corkboard has officially filed the White House hurricane claim under “nature owes the president a thank-you note.” The Daily Beast reported that the administration credited Donald Trump with stopping hurricanes, even though the Atlantic had reached its normal seasonal peak without a hurricane forming. That is not executive control. That is an empty space on a weather map being handed a political participation trophy.

The actual weather story is less flattering to the branding department. The Associated Press described the season’s start as historically slow, with El Niño helping suppress the atmospheric conditions storms need to develop. Axios reported that only five named storms had formed by September 15, an unusually quiet pace for that point in the season. Those are useful facts about weather patterns, not evidence that the Oval Office installed a giant presidential off-switch over the Atlantic.

This is how the panic-and-credit machine works: first, everyone waits for a disaster; then, when one does not arrive, somebody in power claims they personally defeated it. The algorithm wears a trench coat and whispers that correlation is leadership. By that standard, every uneventful flight becomes a transportation triumph, every empty pothole becomes infrastructure policy, and every dog that declines to bite is an executive public-safety initiative.

There is also a practical problem with turning quiet conditions into a victory parade. A late or suppressed storm season does not guarantee safety. The National Hurricane Center continues to track tropical systems because one storm can still become catastrophic, and a calm Atlantic does not erase flooding or other extreme weather affecting communities elsewhere. Ordinary people do not need a president to accept credit for atmospheric restraint; they need accurate warnings, functioning infrastructure, and public officials who understand the difference.

So yes, let the country enjoy a season with fewer Atlantic threats. Relief belongs to the people who would otherwise board up homes, evacuate families, miss work, and rebuild afterward. The White House can keep the nonexistent trophy, preferably polished with premium string. Nature declined to attend the ceremony, and the administration still arrived early to accept its award.