WASHINGTON _ The loudest applause President Donald Trump received when withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement was when he said he was "elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."
Trump appeared to speak past his audience of supporters and skeptical reporters directly to working class Americans in struggling coal towns and factory cities.
"It is time to put Youngstown, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania _ along with many, many other locations within our great country _ before Paris, France," Trump said. "It is time to make America great again."
It was the latest example in recent weeks of Trump reverting to the comforts of campaign themes as his legislative agenda was derailed by multiple scandals.
Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign to pull out or renegotiate the Paris agreement. But like other campaign promises such as moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as president he has wavered on following through as advisers such as daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have wrestled with the potential consequences.
It's unclear how leaving the Paris agreement will affect Trump and Republicans politically. But as the administration struggles to realign with the public on the issues that got Trump to the White House in the first place, the Paris deal was his salvation in many ways.
As environmentalist and world leaders shook their heads, Trump's base cheered. They saw their leader fighting regulations they felt contributed to closed auto factories and mining businesses in their communities. They saw Trump looking out for their interests _ looking out for their jobs.
The speech also, for at least a day, knocked the multiple scandals related to Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey off the top of the news and changed _ or at least inserted into _ the public conversation a lively debate about jobs and the environment.
It "crystalized" the differences between right and left, Trump voters and Trump opponents, said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, who worked for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
"A large part of Trump's appeal was this you and I, the average American worker, the middle class American, against the elites, not only here at home, but abroad," Madden said.
There are risks for Trump. A recent Yale University poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans, including almost half of Trump voters, support remaining in the Paris agreement.
Seventy-five percent of the voters in Pittsburgh, which Trump highlighted in his Rose Garden speech, cast ballots for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, in last year's election.
"Generations from now, Americans will look back at Donald Trump's decision to leave the Paris agreement as one of the most ignorant and dangerous actions ever taken by any president," Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement.
Some local leaders in communities Trump said he was looking out for, including Pittsburgh, said the president didn't represent their communities' views.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto went further and issued an executive order a day after pledging Pittsburgh would continue to follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement.
