--- title: Climate Change Believers Leaving the Trump White House description: With several high-profile departures in recent weeks, the balance of power in the Trump Administration is tilting against climate change. canonical: https://time.com/5201421/rex-tillerson-climate-change-donald-trump/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-15T20:13:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:02:57.493Z article:section: Politics og:title: The White House's Climate Change Believers Are Headed Out the Door og:description: Their replacements doubt the science. og:url: https://time.com/5201421/rex-tillerson-climate-change-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22ad71a3a8ae8693/69892afc8fd2ee64be35b0a1/rex-tillerson-climate-change-trump-administration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2965 og:image:height: 1668 og:image:alt: Rex Tillerson climate change Trump administration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The White House's Climate Change Believers Are Headed Out the Door twitter:description: Their replacements doubt the science. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22ad71a3a8ae8693/69892afc8fd2ee64be35b0a1/rex-tillerson-climate-change-trump-administration.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The White House's Climate Change Believers Are Headed Out the Door > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=12674fc9-d9fa-4510-8824-474aedfd38b0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change [Watch (HLS stream): The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mia6Tcb8.m3u8) (2:11)  _Published 2017-09-26. The Legal Reasons Why President Trump Won't Take A Stand On Climate Change_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 15, 2018 8:13 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Mar 15, 2018 8:13 PM UTC On the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly questioned the science of climate change and promised to undo Obama-era environmental regulations. But during his first year, a vigorous internal debate occurred within the White House about how to approach global warming. With several high-profile departures in recent weeks, that debate appears to be over. Secretary of State [Rex Tillerson](http://time.com/5198200/donald-trump-fired-rex-tillerson-analysis/), top economic advisor [Gary Cohn](http://time.com/5188746/gary-cohn-donald-trump-resignation/) and White House adviser Jared Kushner all pushed Trump to keep the U.S. in the Paris climate deal, albeit unsuccessfully, while former energy advisor George David Banks led an internal effort within the Administration to keep the U.S. productively participating in international climate discussions. As of this week, Tillerson, Banks and Cohn have all resigned or have been fired while Kushner has been sidelined by security clearance issues. Trump announced that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement in June of last year, but he had expressed a willingness to reconsider. Environmentalists now believe that won’t happen. “Any thought of Trump changing his mind on Paris is probably more remote,” says Alden Meyer, director of policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group. “And it was always pretty unlikely to begin with.” The exodus may be more bad news for environmental groups already dismayed by the Trump Administration’s position on global warming. Trump seems likely to nominate replacements who take a stance similar to his on climate change and the fate of various behind-the-scenes efforts on the issue remain unclear. The State Department’s climate program — responsible for helping chart a global pathway to reduced greenhouse gas emissions — has largely remained on autopilot under Tillerson, the former head of ExxonMobil. Despite a lack of U.S. leadership at global climate talks, the country has still engaged substantively behind the scenes. But Tillerson acknowledged the vast scientific consensus that climate change is occurring and caused by humans. Meantime, Trump’s pick for his replacement, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, has questioned the science and may be more inclined to shift the department’s direction. “There’s some who think we’re warming, there’s some who think we’re cooling,” he said in 2013 on a C-SPAN [appearance](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4456999/mike-pompeo-washington-journal). “He was a reality-based Cabinet member,” says Meyer. “He understood that climate is a serious issue, believed the science and understood that climate had geopolitical and security implications.” Pompeo could make an active effort to disrupt progress at ongoing international climate change discussions or remove the U.S. from the process entirely. [Larry Kudlow](http://time.com/5199965/trump-larry-kudlow-economic-adviser/), Cohn’s replacement, opposed the Paris Agreement and is also on the record questioning the science of climate change. “Then there’s a bunch of scientists who don’t think we have a global-warming problem at all,” he [wrote](https://www.cnbc.com/id/24671666) in 2008\. “And many who do acknowledge the threat link it to solar warming, or increased solar activity, rather than carbon.” Banks may be the least-recognized name among the climate change believers, but he made the issue a chief concern, working to make the deal more amenable to U.S. fossil fuel companies and making a political case for the U.S. to come back to the deal ahead of the 2020 election. “The president can walk out of his meeting with G7 Heads of State and say ‘I renegotiated the Paris Agreement,’” says Banks. “He takes it off the campaign and scores points with independents.” But without Tillerson, Cohn or Banks around, Trump may never hear that argument, much less consider it. ## Transcript As a candidate Donald Trump had no problem giving his opinion about climate change. So Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming, and a lot of it's a hoax, it's a hoax, I mean it's a money making industry okay . >> But as president he won't say what he things and neither will his administration. The president himself during the campaign called climate change a hoax. Have you had that conversation with him? I have not had that conversation with him. He no longer believes what he tweeted during the course of the campaign in years earlier, that it's a hoax? Look, you're gonna have to ask him. I'll ask it one more time. Does he believe global warming's a hoax? Does he believe- You should ask him that. When asked their own opinions, other members of the Trump administration generally agree the climate is changing and humans may play a role. Climate is changing, it always has. Man at this particular point in time is having an effect on it, how much effect is what's at debate here. So why is Trump himself so cagey? Part of it is political, polls show the majority of Americans believe global warming is real and is caused by human activities. Part of it personal, Trump does not like to admit he was wrong about an issue in the past As can be seen from his brief and begrudging admission this his crusade over President Obama's birth certificate was mistaken. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. But there's a legal reason too. The Environmental Protection Agency has found that the greenhouse gases, which cause climate change Are a form of pollution that endanger human health and wellbeing. And thanks to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, that means the EPA must act on those findings. If the Trump Administration were to say climate change isn't real it would be open to lawsuits from environmentalists for not acting on its own EPA findings. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is careful to say that it's real in some form. I indicated That in fact global warming is occurring. That human activity contributes to it in some manner. That doesn't mean the EPA has to keep the Obama administration's plans in place. In fact members of the Trump adminstration have been steadily rolling back regulations designed to fight climate change. They just can't say they're doing that. Because climate change isn't real. 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