Trump’s Chicago hotel killed thousands of fish, court finds

More than a half-decade after the Illinois Attorney General’s original lawsuit, Chicago’s Trump International Hotel & Tower has been found guilty of violating various local environmental laws. A Cook County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday that Trump’s company violated both the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and Illinois Pollution Control Board regulations.

Trump’s architectural monstrosity, which sits on the Chicago River, draws millions of gallons of river water every day to cool its massive HVAC systems, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office has said. Unlike other riverfront properties that also use the practice, Trump’s hotel never obtained the proper permits for the practice or conducted the necessary tests to ensure it had limited impact on local wildlife, the Chicago Tribune reports. As a result, Trump’s hotel sucked in and killed a huge number of native fish and other aquatic life. Then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan originally sued Trump’s company over the matter in 2018.

“The Chicago River is one of our city’s most precious natural resources, providing opportunities for recreation and commerce,” current Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement. “For years, Trump Tower has failed to comply with state and federal laws that protect the health of the Chicago River and the balance of the critical aquatic ecosystems within it. All actors — no matter who they are — must be held accountable when they willfully disregard our rights. I applaud this decision and pledge to continue to vigorously enforce our environmental laws.”

Gizmodo has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment and will update this post if it receives a response.

This turn of events makes it even funnier that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is endorsing Trump. Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer, has seemingly betrayed every principle he once held. In a pathetic move, RFK Jr. appeared to claim during his concession speech last month that Trump is the best candidate for voters who care about things like health care and the environment, despite the fact that a second Trump term would certainly be a disaster for both of those things.

Project 2025, which is widely seen as the most credible policy proposal for a second Trump administration (despite Trump’s own public rejection of the project), is full of attacks on federal regulatory agencies designed to protect the environment. The plan would weaken the Environmental Protection Agency and cut various weather agencies. It would also weaken a range of regulations that currently protect Americans from pollution and contamination.