1 Big Thing: Defiant Trump Never Wavered

Axios covers CEI’s role in President Trump’s Paris Climate Agreement withdrawal.

The “debate” was mostly a charade. A source who spends a lot of time with President Trump has never heard him say a positive thing about the Paris climate accord.

Ivanka Trump was optimistic to the end that she could change her father’s mind.

But in retrospect, it turns out that the notion he was going to stay in the deal was always fanciful.

The bottom line, from Axios’ Jonathan Swan: The speech Trump gave in the Rose Garden was the most full-throated expression of populist nationalism we’ve seen since his inauguration. This was campaign Trump, and he looked like he was loving it in the Rose Garden, with his supporters cheering his applause lines and a jazz band warming up the crowd in the sun.

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The non-profit Competitive Enterprise Institute played a big role in rallying outside conservative groups. An administration source says CEI was “the energy” and “enabled the issue to stay high profile in the White House for months.” CEI marshaled a coalition letter of influential outside groups, and helped generate the letter from the 22 Republican senators — including Mitch McConnell — that gave Trump crucial ammo.

Read the full article at Axios.