foreign affairs Trump ‘evolving’ on climate action, White House says

Associated Press

TAORMINA, Italy

Forceful face-to-face talks this week with fellow world leaders left President Donald Trump “more knowledgeable” and with “evolving” views about the global climate accord he’s threatened to abandon, a top White House official said Friday.

Trump also was impressed by their arguments about how crucial U.S. leadership is in supporting international efforts.

The president’s new apparent openness to staying in the landmark Paris climate pact came amid a determined pressure campaign by European leaders. During Friday’s gathering of the Group of 7 wealthy democracies – as well as at earlier stops on Trump’s first international trip – leaders have implored him to stick with the 2015 accord aimed at reducing carbon emissions and slowing potentially disastrous global warming.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G-7 leaders “put forward very many arguments” for the U.S. sticking with the agreement. And by Friday evening, White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said Trump’s views were indeed “evolving.”

“He feels much more knowledgeable on the topic today,” Cohn said. “He came here to learn, he came here to get smarter.”

While those comments were remarkable given Trump’s fierce criticism of the Paris deal as a candidate, they were also in keeping with his emerging pattern as president. A novice in international affairs, Trump has been surprisingly candid about the impact his conversations with world leaders have had in shaping his views on numerous issues.

He backed away from his tough campaign talk about trade with China after a summit with President Xi Jinping. And he abandoned his criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record following his warm welcome in the desert kingdom this week.

On Friday, G-7 leaders appeared to take a page out of the playbook other countries have followed, emphasizing America’s unrivaled influence on the world stage. Cohn told reporters that Trump was struck by “how important it is for the United States to show leadership” and how even in massive international agreements, there’s “a big gap when you take the biggest economy out.”

White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster quickly jumped in to assert that Trump would make his decisions based “on what’s best for the American people,” hewing to the “America First” policy that energized the president’s supporters during last year’s election campaign.

Nearly 200 countries are part of the Paris accord, and each sets its own emissions targets, which are not legally binding. The U.S. has pledged to reduce its annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels, which would be a reduction of about 1.6 billion tons of annual emissions.

After more than a week abroad, Trump will close his international trip today with additional G-7 meetings and an address to U.S. troops at a nearby air base.