WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS. Donald Trump Deals Away America's Prestige, and His Own Position
In terms of both domestic politics and international affairs, our president is painting himself into a terribly tight corner.
MICHAEL TOMASKY
05.30.17 1:00 AM ET
So this week, he warns us, the president is going to announce his decision on whether the United States will remain a party to the Paris climate accord. I guess the delay is meant to dupe us into believing that he’s been studying the substance of the issue.
I think we all expect that he’ll pull the United States out of the agreement, signed by 195 nations (and unsigned by just Nicaragua and Syria, if you want an idea of the company Donald Trump would be putting us in). Indeed Axios reported Monday that Trump has already told several associates that he’s giving it the heave-ho. The thin reed of hope here is that a slew of major U.S. corporations—including the CEO of Exxon!—have told him to stay in Paris.
So maybe there’s the slimmest of chances that he might pleasantly surprise us. But come on. He knows he’d have a mutiny on his hands if he doesn’t reject the accord. The three key elements of the Republican Party these days are the hardest-right members of Congress (look, for example, at how the House Republicans rewrote the health bill to placate the Freedom Caucus); Rush Limbaugh and the other media propagandists, and the rabid pro-Trump base. Each of these overlapping groups would be enraged if Trump stuck with Paris.
As a matter of politics, he’s already lost more or less the entire country except for these people. If he starts losing them—by doing things like coming around to Barack Obama’s position on climate change—they’ll start thinking the words “President Pence” sound just fine. And they, unlike the rest of us, have the power to make it happen.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/30/donald-trump-deals-away-americas-prestige-and-his-own-position