By a ratio of more than five to one, Americans in one recent poll said the United States should participate in the Paris climate change agreement that President Trump pulled out of on Thursday. Even a majority of Republicans agreed.
But in Mr. Trump’s calculation, withdrawing from the accord will be a political winner.
The decision highlighted Mr. Trump’s broader political gamble as he seeks to build a presidency that can succeed in midterm elections next year and, ultimately, in 2020 when he is up for re-election. It is a strategy predicated not on attracting new supporters, but on cultivating the narrower conservative base that delivered him to the White House. CONT.
Peter Baker, New York Times