Le Président Trump dit, "Au revoir mon précieux Paris!"

And we're out!

I had begun to have doubts that he would pull the trigger. I guess I had read too much media about all the possible permutations of a possible President Trump announcement on the absurd Paris Climate Agreement (the link provided has the entire text; if you have nothing else to do, please read it. I find that the people who most support it, haven't read it.)

President Trump spoke in his usual blunt way, i.e., not a whole lot of diplo-speak,

I am fighting every day for the great people of this country. Therefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord -- (applause) -- thank you, thank you -- but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers. So we’re getting out. But we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And if we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s fine. (Applause.)

As President, I can put no other consideration before the wellbeing of American citizens. The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers -- who I love -- and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production. 

Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which is costing the United States a vast fortune.

He laid out the case for getting out of the Accord in a magnificent manner; it's well-worth reading the whole announcement.

He identified it clearly as just another progressive wealth suppression and distribution scheme, that would increase government power, diminish the economic opportunities of ordinary Americans, further burden the US taxpayer, and do nothing about the environment. It allowed YUGE polluters such as China and India waivers on just about everything for years to come, and promised India trillions of dollars in aid. It set up a bureaucratic monstrosity, some sort of UN-run Green Fund, that would administer billions of dollars to Third World countries to help them (unspecified how) fight climate change. All rubbish.

I have seen some commentators saying the President should have gone along with the Agreement because it was voluntary, and we could unwind its provisions quietly at home. Yeah, yeah. Look, I have written before about how progressives use words to change the nature of debate. They also aim at false targets, "we . . . find repeatedly that the announced target of progressive wrath is not the ultimate target. The target is altered." The real target of this sort of accord is not combating some illusory global warming or cooling. It is about increasing the power of the institutions controlled by progressives. The United States, for example, is a nation obsessed with laws. An accord such as this one, although not ratified by the Senate, would quickly find its way into our law books and spawn endless lawsuits and civil actions against firms, individuals, and government agencies not complying with the Accord. It is yet another in the endless effort to provide full employment to divisions of progressive lawyers.

Thank you, President Trump.