The Trump administration has turned to an unusual weapon in its attempt to resurrect coal mining – a cartoon lump of coal, complete with giant eyes and yellow mining garb, called “Coalie”.
The administration’s new mascot, kitted out with a helmet, boots and gloves, was introduced in a seemingly artificial intelligence-generated picture posted online by Doug Burgum, Donald Trump’s interior secretary.
“Mine, Baby, Mine!” Burgum wrote on X, adding that Coalie will act as a “spokesperson” for Trump’s “American Energy Dominance Agenda”.
Climate activists criticized the latest attempt by the administration to boost the image of the dirtiest fossil fuel despite its effects on the planet and public health, with one critic describing it as “one of the most heinous ways to produce energy that our world has ever seen”.
Coalie, whose large eyes and grin appears to invoke a Japanese style of cuteness used in toys and animated characters, is to be an ambassador for the office of surface mining reclamation and enforcement (OSMRE), the US government agency responsible for regulating coalmines.
Donald Trump and Doug Burgum speak in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Further images of Coalie appear on the OSMRE website, where the anthropomorphic hunk of carbon is depicted joyfully posing with what appeared to be an AI-generated family, standing on an office table during a meeting while giving cheeky wink and happily showing off an abandoned coalmine that has been turned into a bucolic picnic site.
The image of Coalie was first created in 2018 when a social media manager at the OSMRE put googly eyes on a picture of coal, according to Grist. The new public use of Coalie to promote Trump’s agenda is the latest attempt by the administration to revamp a US coal industry that has declined sharply in the past decade despite the president’s promises to reverse the fortunes of the industry’s dwindling workforce.
“I have a little standing order in the White House,” Trump said last year during a speech to the United Nations. “Never use the word ‘coal’. Only use the words ‘clean, beautiful coal’. Sounds much better, doesn’t it?”
Despite this branding, and the attempt to make a lump of coal appear cute, coal remains the dirtiest of fossil fuels, being a major driver of the climate crisis and a source of toxic, deadly air pollution to nearby communities when burned. Coal miners have long struggled with adverse health affects, such as black lung disease, after inhaling coal dust.
“I think it’s sick … and par for the course for this administration and the US government to use AI to put a smiling face to one of the most heinous ways to produce energy that our world has ever seen,” said Junior Walk, an activist at Coal River Mountain Watch who has documented the impact of coal mining on his West Virginia community.
“As climate change plunges us deeper into the mass extinction event that we are all living through, and more of my friends and neighbors get sick and die as a direct result of the activities of the coal industry, I will continue to be haunted by Coalie’s twisted grin and uncanny eyes.”
Trump has signed an executive order to revive coal, added it to a list of nationally critically minerals, halted the planned closures of coal plants and torn apart environmental rules he blames for the industry’s woes. However, coal continues to suffer from market forces – gas and renewables such as wind and solar are often cheaper and more attractive sources of electricity for utilities – and workers are being lost to automation.
Miners with black lung disease, meanwhile, have had to battle the Trump administration’s move to roll back safety protections for the coal industry, while the Republican-held Congress is poised to strip $500m from the budget of a fund to clean up old coalmines that are hazardous to the environment long after they are abandoned.
A spokesperson for the OSMRE defended the use of the cartoon, which it said was an educational tool and “not a promotional mascot”, and said it helped expand awareness of its projects like “turning abandoned mine lands into recreational parks and trails”.
“His cartoon format allows us to explain complex issues in ways traditional graphics often cannot,” the spokesperson said.
“Coal remains a critical source of baseload power that keeps the lights on for homes, hospitals, military installations, and essential infrastructure,” the spokesperson added. “[Coalie] draws attention to solutions by showing how regulation, reclamation, and responsible stewardship are actively improving real-world conditions, while supporting a reliable and secure energy future for the nation.”
The Department of the Interior was also contacted for comment about the mascot.
