President Donald Trump received a bronze trophy declaring him the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal” during a White House ceremony on Wednesday, Feb. 11, as he signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants and announced $175 million in federal funding to extend the life of aging coal facilities.
Jim Grech, CEO of Peabody Energy, presented Trump with the inaugural award from the Washington Coal Club, a coal advocacy organization with financial ties to the industry. The trophy features a bronze statue of a coal miner.
Grech told Trump during the ceremony that thousands of coal miners nationwide wanted to express gratitude for his support of the industry. More than a dozen coal executives and hard-hat-wearing miners filled the East Room for the event.
Trump signed the executive order in front of the assembled crowd, directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to negotiate long-term power purchase agreements with coal plants to serve military installations and mission-critical facilities.
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military now,” Trump said at the event, touting American energy exports and praising miners as workers “nobody has ever” supported more than his administration.
The Department of Energy simultaneously announced it will allocate $175 million in funding for six projects designed to modernize, retrofit, and extend the operational life of coal-fired power plants serving rural and remote communities in West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
Several Republican lawmakers and cabinet members attended the ceremony, 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 also participated in the event.
The executive order represents the Trump administration’s latest effort to revive the struggling coal industry, which has experienced sharp decline over the past three decades. Coal accounted for roughly 50 percent of U.S. electricity generation in 2000 but dropped to approximately 16 percent by 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. Coal production in 2023 was less than half its 2008 level.
The administration previously opened 13.1 million acres of public land to coal mining and provided $625 million for coal-fired power plants in September. Trump has also directed the EPA to rescind the Obama-era “endangerment finding” that established greenhouse gases as threats to public health, which has served as the legal foundation for federal climate regulations since 2009.
During his remarks, Trump addressed coal’s public image problem, declaring he no longer uses the word coal without adding “beautiful, clean” before it—a rebranding effort he says the industry desperately needs.
Kayla Blackford, a haul truck driver at Bear Run Mine in Dugger, Indiana, spoke at the ceremony on behalf of miners nationwide. “We are real people under these hard hats,” she told Trump, thanking him for recognizing coal’s value and the workers who power the industry.
Emily Arthun, CEO of the American Coal Council, praised the administration’s commitment, calling the ceremony “a meaningful moment for coal communities across America.”
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey called the funding announcement and executive order “a major win for West Virginia workers, West Virginia communities, and every American who depends on affordable, reliable electricity.”
The implementation of the Pentagon’s coal purchasing mandate faces logistical challenges, including transmission capacity constraints and questions about how the Defense Department will structure contracts with coal plant operators. Energy analysts noted that the military operates hundreds of installations nationwide that currently purchase power from utility companies and grid operators, making the transition to coal-specific contracts complex.
The executive order marks a sharp reversal from President Joe Biden’s 2021 directive ordering the federal government to transition to carbon-free electricity, which Trump rescinded upon taking office in January 2025.
The trophy presentation drew widespread mockery on social media, with critics deriding it as yet another “participation trophy” created to flatter the president.
Environmental Defense Fund Action questioned whether organizations were “just making up awards now,” while numerous users compared the honor to Trump’s recent FIFA Peace Prize—another inaugural award created specifically for him.
“It’s amazing that this doesn’t embarrass him,” wrote tech entrepreneur Gissur Simonarson. “People feel like they now need to give him some kind of worthless trophy to win his favor.”
Others noted the irony of Republicans embracing what one user called a “participation trophy president” after years of criticizing participation trophies in youth sports.
The phrase “clean coal” itself became a target of ridicule, with critics calling it an “oxymoron” akin to “silent noise.”
Some commenters questioned whether coal industry representatives were “trolling Trump” by presenting an award for promoting an energy source widely considered environmentally damaging. The controversy extended beyond the trophy itself, with social media users also seizing on Trump’s speech delivery during the ceremony, sharing clips that appeared to show the 79-year-old president stumbling over words while announcing himself as the “undisputed champion of beautiful, clean coal.”
