‘I represent the people of Pittsburgh NOT Paris’: Trump pulls U.S. out of climate accord saying it is a foreign attempt to seize American jobs and American wealth – and is immediately attacked by Obama
- Donald Trump is pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement that Barack Obama entered
- President says he is protecting American jobs and accuses treaty of being designed to redistribute U.S. wealth to other countries
- ‘I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris,’ he said – ‘It is time to make America great again.’
- Obama reacted before Trump even finishing speaking, saying action means U.S. joins a small handful of nations that reject the future’
- Trump told ‘foreign leaders in Europe, Asia and across the world’ they would not have a say over American jobs and American growth
- Syria and Nicaragua are only other countries not in deal whose backers say is vital to stopping average temperatures growing by more than 2C this century
- Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were said to have lobbied to stay in – and were not at the Rose Garden to witness the decision being announced
Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change on Thursday afternoon – deriding it as bad for American jobs and bad for the environment.
He dared opprobrium from foreign leaders, environmentalists, scientists and celebrities to say he was putting the jobs of American workers first.
‘We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won’t be. They won’t be,’ Trump declared. ‘I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.’
Before he even sat down, his predecessor Barack Obama launched an all-out assault, saying Trump ‘joins a small handful of nations that reject the future’.
The leaders of France, Germany and Italy said the decision was ‘regrettable’ and that the deal was ‘non-negotiable’.
Elon Musk, the Tesla billionaire, said he was quitting advising the White House, tweeting: ‘Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.’
Trump complained in the White House’s Rose Garden that major polluters like China are allowed to increase their emissions under the agreement in a way that the US cannot. India is hinging its participation on billions of dollars of foreign aid.
‘The bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States,’ he said.
He argued later, ‘The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries.’
‘This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,’ he contended.
Trump said he would end the United States’ participation in the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund for the same reason.
The UN program asks developed countries to provide billions in foreign aid on top of what the US already gives.
‘Many of the other countries haven’t spent anything, and many of them will never pay one dime,’ he said.
In another slap at the European leaders who’d lobbied him last week to stick with the agreement, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Trump said his Paris exit is ‘a reassertion of America’s sovereignty.’
‘Foreign leaders in Europe, Asia and across the world should not have more to say with respect to the US economy that our own citizens and their elected representatives,’ Trump proclaimed.
Trump told off naysayers in a lengthy explanation of his decision and the effect he expects it to have on the US economy as the sun beat down on his audience.
For nearly half an hour Trump railed against the accord he said would result in ‘lost jobs and a very diminished quality of life’ for families in America.
‘The Paris Agreement handicaps the United States economy in order to win praise from the very foreign capitals and global activists that have long sought to gain wealth at our country’s expense. They don’t put America first. I do and I always will,’ he said.
He outlined what he said the accord would do to the American economy: 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025; $3 trillion in lost GDP by 2050; and an average household income loss of $7,000.