During a White House event on Wednesday, Feb. 11, President Donald Trump received a bronze trophy naming him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.” The presentation took place as he signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to purchase coal-generated electricity and unveiled $175 million in federal support intended to extend the life of aging coal plants.
Jim Grech, CEO of Peabody Energy, presented Trump with the inaugural trophy from the Washington Coal Club, a pro-coal organization with financial ties to the industry. The award features a bronze figure of a coal miner.
Grech told Trump that coal miners across the country wanted to express their gratitude for his support. The East Room included more than a dozen coal executives and miners wearing their hard hats.
Before the assembled attendees, Trump signed the executive order instructing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Energy Secretary Chris Wright to seek long-term contracts for coal-powered electricity to serve military bases and essential operations.
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said at the event, emphasizing U.S. energy exports and praising miners as workers his administration has backed more than any other.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy announced plans to allocate $175 million in funding for six projects aimed at modernizing, retrofitting, and prolonging the operation of coal-fired power plants in rural and remote areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
Several Republican lawmakers and cabinet members attended, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia, and Senator Marsha Blackburn were also among those present.
The executive order marks the administration’s latest attempt to revive the struggling coal sector, which has experienced significant decline over the past three decades. Coal accounted for about half of U.S. electricity in 2000 but dropped to roughly 16 percent by 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. Production in 2023 was less than half of its 2008 level.
In earlier actions, the administration opened 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal development and awarded $625 million to coal plants in September. Trump also ordered the EPA to reverse the Obama-era “endangerment finding,” which identified greenhouse gases as threats to public health and has formed the basis of federal climate regulations since 2009.
While speaking, Trump commented on coal’s public image, saying he now insists on describing it as “beautiful, clean”—a branding change he says the industry urgently requires.
Kayla Blackford, a haul-truck operator at Bear Run Mine in Dugger, Indiana, represented miners nationwide. “We are real people under these hard hats,” she said, thanking Trump for recognizing the value of coal and the workers who produce it.
Emily Arthun, CEO of the American Coal Council, praised the administration’s initiatives, calling the event “a meaningful moment for coal communities across America.”
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey called the funding and executive order “a major win for West Virginia workers, West Virginia communities, and every American who depends on affordable, reliable electricity.”
Implementing the Pentagon’s mandate to buy coal-generated electricity could prove challenging due to grid constraints and uncertainty about how contracts with plant operators will be structured. Experts noted that the military depends on hundreds of bases currently supplied by utility companies and grid operators, making coal-specific procurement complex.
The executive order stands in sharp contrast to President Joe Biden’s 2021 directive for the federal government to shift to carbon-free power, a policy Trump rescinded upon taking office in January 2025.
The trophy presentation drew widespread ridicule online, with many suggesting it amounted to another “participation trophy” for the president.
Environmental Defense Fund Action questioned whether organizations were “just making up awards now,” while others compared the recognition to Trump’s recent FIFA Peace Prize—another first-time award created solely for him.
Tech entrepreneur Gissur Simonarson commented, “It’s amazing that this doesn’t embarrass him,” adding that “People feel like they now need to give him some kind of worthless trophy to win his favor.”
Some observers highlighted the irony of Republicans applauding what one person described as a “participation trophy president,” despite years of criticizing participation trophies for kids.
The phrase “clean coal” also attracted mockery, with critics calling it an “oxymoron” similar to “silent noise.”
A few commenters even questioned whether coal industry representatives were “trolling Trump” by offering him an award tied to a power source widely viewed as environmentally damaging. The criticism extended beyond the award, as social media users shared clips from Trump’s remarks that appeared to show the 79-year-old president stumbling over his words while declaring himself the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.”
