In a formal announcement, President Trump defended his controversial decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement by citing a dubious campaign promise to the American worker. 

"The Paris climate accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers —who I love—and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production," Trump announced from the White House Rose Garden Thursday. 

"There is no question it helps Trump with his base,” Republican pollster Glen Bolger said.

But polls indicate otherwise. Two post-election surveys conducted by the Yale Program for Climate Communication found that more than two-thirds (69%) of registered voters believed the U.S. should honor the Paris climate agreement—including nearly half of Trump voters (47 percent). 

"I wish he hadn't [pulled out] just because it makes us seem as though we're not in with the rest of the world in combating climate change. So the whole appearance of it isn't good," Lora Dilley, a coal mine safety operator from Gillette, Wyoming told CNN. 

Just one of Dilley's coworkers whom CNN spoke with considers climate change a hoax. 

"I am not a climate change denier," asserted shovel operator Stacey Moeller, 58. "I do believe we certainly have an impact. But I think we can lessen that in a responsible way that doesn't... put entire groups of people out of work." 

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