Jerry Brown to Global Climate Activists: Trump Doesn’t Speak for the Rest of America

California Governor Jerry Brown delivered a video message Thursday to climate change activists gathered in Hamburg, Germany for a summit to coincide with the G-20 meeting, telling them that President Donald Trump does not represent the United States as a whole, at least on climate change.

“Yes, I know President Trump is trying to get out of the Paris Agreement. Well, he doesn’t speak for the rest of America.” he said.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the crowd of 12,000 activists “burst out in applause when the governor said Trump doesn’t speak for the rest of the U.S.”

Trump was not invited to the conference, though he is in Hamburg. The Times notes that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among the heads of state participating.

In addition to bashing Trump, Gov. Brown invited activists to come to San Francisco for a “Climate Action Summit” in September 2018. The summit would extend the work that Brown has done over the past several years to link sub-national governments together on climate change policies.

Presumably, the attendees at Brown’s summit would travel by airplane. As the New York Times noted in 2013, in an article titled “Your Biggest Carbon Sin May Be Air Travel,” flying to San Francisco, even just from New York, creates major greenhouse gas emissions:

For many people reading this, air travel is their most serious environmental sin. One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person. The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year; the average European, 10.

Brown’s video is below:

Under the U.S. Constitution, the President of the United States has broad powers over the nation’s foreign affairs, including the decision to participate in, or withdraw from, executive agreements. State governors have no such powers, though they may promote the interests of their residents abroad and welcome foreign trade and tourism.

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.