Trump Uses Paris Protests as an Opportunity to Blast International Climate Agreement

He blamed the unrest on the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Rafael Yaghobzadeh/AP

French police clashed with “yellow vest” protesters in Paris on Saturday as country-wide demonstrations of President Emanuel Macron’s leadership and economic policies continued for the fourth consecutive weekend. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country, and nearly 1,000 protesters have been arrested so far, reports the Associated Press.

The so-called “yellow vest” movement, named for the bright hazard vest every French driver is required to keep in the car, began in mid-November when nearly 300,000 French citizens swarmed the Paris streets to demand a drop in gas prices and relief from President Macron’s planned fuel tax. They say the tax put a particular strain on low- and middle-income residents of France’s suburbs and rural areas, where a lack of public transportation makes residents particularly reliant on cars. On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced that the tax would be pushed back six months to allow for public discussion. “No tax is worth putting in danger the unity of the nation,” he said.

His comment didn’t stop thousands of demonstrators from descending on Paris on Saturday, where police responded on force with tear gas and water cannons. Though some of the protesters were violent anarchists known as “casseurs” who set fire to cars and ripped down barricades to storefronts, the majority of protesters—including those in Nice, Nantes, and Marseille—were peaceful. More than a hundred people have reportedly been injured in the day’s demonstrations.

The protests have broadened into general anger against the declining standard of living and dislike of France’s centrist president. Many French residents cluster around a median disposable household income that translates to roughly $31,000 a year. 

In tweets on Saturday morning, President Donald Trump blamed the unrest on the 2015 Paris climate accord, the sweeping international agreement that the United States withdrew from last year. He added that demonstrators were chanting, “We want Trump!” (There is no evidence of this chanting, CNN recently pointed out, noting that he may have been referring to a different protest in London.) The president also bragged that the United States is ahead of the curve on cutting carbon emissions. The US has reduced its CO2 emissions in recent years, most notably during the final two years of the Obama administration, but still has among the highest per capita emissions in the world.

French environmentalists argue the unrest is not a reaction to environmental policies overall, but to the fuel tax specifically, which they see as targeting low-income residents. “This is not the yellow vests against climate-change policies,” Pierre Cannet, the head of climate and energy at the French offices of the World Wildlife Federation, told The Atlantic. “It’s the yellow vests against the cost of living, the way politics are done, and how decision makers are doing policy.”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate