California Gov. Jerry Brown trashed President Donald Trump to Chinese officials on Tuesday at a climate change conference in Bonn, Germany — just as the president wrapped up a visit to several Asian nations, including China.
Brown told the Chinese officials that Americans were “embarrassed” by Trump’s statement that climate change was a Chinese hoax. He called it “probably the most absurd thing that has ever been said on the topic,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
On Wednesday, Trump touted his successful meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a national address from the White House.
Brown had been referring to Trump’s comment in a tweet in November 2012: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”
While there is no evidence that the theory of climate change was invented by China — and plenty of evidence to the contrary — the idea that climate change regulations are embraced by some foreign competitors to gain an advantage over American manufacturing is arguably true.
In Germany, Brown was speaking after Xie Zhenhua, China’s negotiator at the Paris Climate Accords. Brown urged China to take the lead in implementing climate change regulations — such as a California-designed carbon trading market — since the Trump administration would not.
The tradition of leaving politics behind at the water’s edge has been violated by all sides in recent months, with Trump’s opponents frequently attacking him in front of foreign audiences, and Trump criticizing previous administrations while abroad. President Barack Obama also criticized his predecessors when overseas.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.