The White House claimed that Trump’s meetings ran late, so he missed the working session on climate change, but that excuse was bogus.
The White House Pool Report as provided to PoliticusUSA noted that Trump wasn’t at the climate change session, “At 11:02 pool was brought into the working session on climate, biodiversity and oceans. Potus was not present and pool was ushered out a minute later. The rest of the G7 leaders were there – Boris Johnson, Shinzo Abe, Macron, Trudeau, Merkel. POTUS’s seat, betweenSisi and Pinera, was empty.”
The Pooler then reported that Trump claimed the climate change session was happening later, after it had already happened:
Asked if he attended the climate session, Potus says “we’re having it in a little while.†He didn’t appear to hear when a reporter told him it just happened.
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White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed that Trump didn’t attend because his meetings ran long, The President had scheduled meetings and bilaterals with Germany and India, so a senior member of the Administration attended in his stead.â€
The excuse is nonsense because Merkel, who was one of Trump’s meetings, managed to make it to the climate change session:
Both Merkel and Modi attended the climate session. The session was on Trump’s official schedule (10 AM) in between the Merkel (9:15) and Modi (12 PM) meetings. https://t.co/tM0jvQMUZG
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) August 26, 2019
The Merkel bilat got moved to 11:30 (because Trump ran late to his first bilat w Al Sisi). But Merkel met with Trump and still managed to get to the climate session.
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) August 26, 2019
The Trump White House has been complaining about the climate change focus of this G7 since they arrived in France.
The Amazon rainforest is currently on fire and spewing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each day. Climate scientists are warning that a tipping point is near, so Trump responds by blowing off the working group on climate change.
When experts warn of the long term damage of Trump’s policies, this is the situation that they are talking about.
A vast majority of US voters have shown that they don’t base their votes on climate change, but the bill for inaction is coming due, and the Trump presidency is helping the crisis reach a potential point of no return.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
