Trump's shock to the whole world on the climate agreement, said - anything can happen

Keeping a key campaign promise, President Trump announced Thursday that the US will be pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. Trump, speaking from the White House Rose Garden, decried the agreement as a “bad deal” and an effort to “redistribute wealth” from America to the rest of the world.

In condemning the agreement, Trump talked about his commitment to the “citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” to coal miners, and to cement workers. He also assured the nation that he “cares deeply” about the environment.

Here is a rush transcript of Trump’s remarks in full.

Thank you very much. Thank you. I would like to begin by addressing the terrorist attack in Manila. We're closely monitoring the situation and I will continue to give updates if anything happens during this period of time. But it is really, very sad as to what's going on throughout the world with terror. Our thoughts and our prayers are with all of those affected.

Before we discuss the Paris accord, I would like to begin with an update on our tremendous, absolutely tremendous economic progress since Election Day on November 8th. The economy is starting to come back and very, very rapidly. We've added $3.3 trillion in stock market value to our economy, and more than a million private sector jobs.

I've just returned from a trip overseas where we concluded nearly $350 billion of military and economic development for the United States creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. It was a very, very successful trip. Believe me. Thank you.

In my meetings at the G7, we have taken historic steps to demand fair and reciprocal trade that gives Americans a level playing field against other nations. We're also working very hard for peace in the Middle East and perhaps even peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Our attacks on terrorism are greatly stepped up and you see that. You see it all over. From the previous administration including getting many other countries to make major contributions to the fight against terror. Big, big contributions are being made by countries that weren't doing so much in the form of contribution.

One by one, we are keeping the promises I made to the American people during my campaign for president. Whether it is cutting job-killing regulations, appointing and confirming a tremendous Supreme Court justice, putting in place tough new ethics rules, achieving a record reduction in illegal immigration on our southern border, or bringing jobs, plants and factories back into the United States, at numbers which no one until this point thought even possible. And believe me, we've just begun. The fruits of our labor will be seen very shortly, even more so. On these issues and so many more, we're following through on our commitments, and I don't want anything to get in our way. 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 — Thank you. Thank you. But begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or 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. If we can, that's great. And if we can't, that's fine.

As President, I can put no other consideration before the well-being 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.

Compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord, and the owners, could cost Americans as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025, according to the National Economic Research Associates. This includes 440,000 fewer manufacturing jobs, not what we need. Believe me, this is not what we need. Including automobile jobs and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely. They rely for so much, and we would be giving them so little.

According to the same study by 2040, compliance with the commitments put into place by the previous administration would cut production for the following sectors: paper, down 12 percent; cement, down 23 percent; iron and steel, down 38 percent; coal, and I happen to love the coal miners, down 86 percent; natural gas down 31 percent. The cost to the economy at this time would be close the $3 trillion in lowered GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs, while households would have $7,000 less income and in many cases, much worse than that.

Not only does this deal subject our citizens to harsh economic restrictions, it fails to live up to our environmental ideals. As someone who cares deeply about the environment, which I do, I cannot in good conscience support a deal that punishes the United States, which is what it does, the world's leader in environmental protection, while imposing no meaningful obligations on the world's leading polluters.

For example, under the agreement, China will be able to increase these emissions by a staggering number of years, 13. They can do whatever they want for 13 years. Not us. India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples but the bottom line is that the Paris Accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States.

Further, while the current agreement effectively blocks the development of clean coal in America, which it does, and the mines are starting to open up. They're having a big opening in two weeks, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, so many places. A big opening of a brand new mine. It’s unheard of. For many, many years, that hasn't happened. They asked me if I would go. I'll try. China will be allowed to build hundreds of additional coal plants. So we can't build the plants, but they can. According to this agreement. India will be allowed to double its coal production by 2020. Think of it. India can double their coal production. We're supposed to get rid of ours.