Trump isn’t driving the climate change conversation. For a decade, he’s been following it.

As might have been expected, President Trump refused to join the rest of the Group of 20 nations in endorsing a communique about climate change presented over the weekend. By now, nearly two years into the Trump administration, the United States’ climate isolationism is not remarkable.

It’s worth remembering, though, that the isolation is also not a function of Trump. It’s the culmination of more than a decade of the Republican Party’s political rhetoric, including fervent opposition to climate change legislation, and years of cable-news fulminating — overlaid with a president more willing to adhere to the cable-news view of politics than the nuanced one common in Washington. CONT.

Philip Bump, Washington Post