---
title: The time Trump wrote us a letter about the environment
description: Reflecting on Trump's environmental stance, we urge action on climate by planting 470 trees for the Midterm Elections, emphasizing global responsibility.
---

[Treedom Blog: Sustainable & Green Lifestyle](https://blog.treedom.net/en)

# [The time Trump wrote us a letter about the environment](https://blog.treedom.net/en/trump-lettera-treedom)

 Written by [Tommaso Ciuffoletti](https://blog.treedom.net/en/author/tommaso-ciuffoletti) | Nov 2, 2026, 4:51:09 PM

*In July 2017, we wrote to the President of the United States, asking him not to abandon the Paris Agreement. We gave him a tree. He replied with an official letter from the White House. Nine years later, we have decided to read it again. And to try once more.*

In June 2017, Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. He had been President for just five months and had already decided that the most important international agreement to tackle global warming was a bad deal for the United States.

We weren't particularly happy about that. So we decided to write to him. We asked him to reconsider and, along with our letter, we gave him a tree. Perhaps he was surprised to receive a tree, perhaps it was simply luck, or perhaps the official protocol was followed with great diligence. Whatever the reason, some time later, someone at the White House took the trouble to reply. And not with a courtesy postcard: we received an official letter, on White House letterhead, signed by Donald Trump.

A fairly detailed response, in which the President explained the reasons behind his decision. Or, at least, the reasons his administration had chosen to put forward.

## One letter, many promises

Reading those lines again today makes for an interesting exercise.

Trump explained that the Paris Agreement would have a “negligible” effect on climate change, while imposing unfair costs on American workers and undermining the country's competitiveness. He argued that the United States was already reducing its emissions without the need for international agreements, and that meeting its climate commitments would lead to higher electricity prices and the loss of millions of jobs.

*Then there was the question of China*. According to the President, the agreement would force the United States to make sacrifices that other countries, especially China, would not have to make. Beijing, he wrote, would be free to keep increasing its emissions for years to come.  
Except that the Paris Agreement did not work that way at all. It did not grant China an exemption, but established a system of nationally determined commitments, with targets and responsibilities tailored to each country's circumstances. And the figures Trump cited to predict economic disaster were based on contested scenarios, not inevitable consequences of the agreement.

But the most interesting part comes towards the end. Trump assured us that his administration would continue to take part in international discussions on climate change, promote technology and innovation capable of protecting the environment and, above all, support rigorous scientific research, which he described as essential to environmental protection.  
In other words, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement did not mean abandoning the protection of the planet. At least, that was what he told us.

## Nine years later, let's take stock

Quite a lot has happened since then. The United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement in November 2020, rejoined in February 2021 under Joe Biden, and withdrew again on January 27, 2026, once more under President Trump.

In the meantime, scientific evidence has certainly not confirmed the idea that international climate agreements are pointless. According to Climate Action Tracker, since 2015, estimates of global warming by the end of the century under current policies have fallen from 3.6°C to around 2.6°C. A significant improvement, although still far from sufficient to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.  
And what about China? It has become the world's largest emitter of CO₂ in absolute terms, but it is also the country that has developed its solar and wind energy capacity most rapidly. In short, the climate issue cannot be reduced to such a simplistic picture of a competition in which someone wins and someone else loses.

[As for the reassurances about the importance of science, we will leave it to readers to judge the relationship between those words and the Trump administration's subsequent decisions.](https://blog.treedom.net/en/usa-trump-clima)

Many of the arguments used to justify the withdrawal were, at the very least, misleading, and the promises of international engagement were contradicted by subsequent events.  
The letter is still here. And apparently, so are we.

## From one tree to 470

In 2017, we tried to get a message through to the White House. Today, we have decided to try again, this time with a more ambitious project.  
It's called [**MEGA – Make Earth Great Again**](https://blog.treedom.net/en/mega-make-earth-great-again), and it takes inspiration from the 2026 US Midterm Elections. Because even if we cannot vote in the United States, we can remind its representatives that decisions made in Washington have consequences far beyond America's borders. [Our goal is to plant at least 470 trees, one for every seat up for election in the Midterms, and send a letter to each newly elected representative.](https://promo.treedom.net/make-earth-great-again/en/)

It is a way of reaffirming that the climate crisis concerns everyone, and that no government – least of all that of one of the world's leading economic and political powers – can consider itself exempt from its responsibilities.

In 2017, we gave Donald Trump a tree. In 2026, we want to send 470 trees, and above all create 470 opportunities to remind people that the future of our planet cannot be treated as a matter of political convenience.

The 2017 letter reminds us of something important: making your voice heard matters, even when the person on the other end doesn't seem particularly keen to listen.

And apparently, we're not done writing just yet.

**We can't vote in the United States. But we can make our voices heard.**

 

[View full post](https://blog.treedom.net/en/trump-lettera-treedom)

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