“We’re getting out.”

President Donald Trump announced Thursday afternoon the United States is withdrawing from the U.N.’s Paris Climate Agreement. During remarks in the Rose Garden, Trump repeatedly stressed his “America first” philosophy in making the decision.

“Withdrawing is in America’s economic interest and won’t matter much to the climate,” he said. Trump argued the agreement would have distributed America’s wealth to other nations. The “bad deal” would have hurt American workers, he insisted.

The announcement is the fulfillment of a campaign promise Trump made a year ago. During his first campaign speech detailing his energy policies, then-candidate Trump pledged to cancel the agreement if elected. The agreement was adopted in December of 2015 by 190 countries. President Barack Obama officially joined in September 2016. One hundred and ninety-five nations ultimately signed on.

The agreement requires all joining members to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It also pursues “efforts to limit the [global] temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.”

“Someday we may see this as the moment that we finally decided to save our planet,” Obama said when he joined the agreement.

But conservatives have been critical from the beginning. The treaty was not ratified by the Senate, a violation of the Constitution’s Treaty Clause. Others claimed it is unsubstantial while extremely costly. Trump voters and conservatives pushed for him to keep his promise as he joined other world leaders at last week’s G-7 summit.

Trump came under pressure from leaders, even Pope Francis, to uphold the treaty. But efforts to change his mind, including from Ivanka Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, proved fruitless. Trump said he listened to “a lot of people both ways.” But Thursday government officials confirmed his withdrawal was “official.”

Dr. Calvin Beisner wrote for The Stream that full implementation of the Paris Agreement would lower the global temperature only 0.3ºF by 2100. Trump’s administration emphasized this point.

During his Rose Garden remarks, Trump declared he was willing to team with Democrats to either rework the agreement or forge a new, better climate deal.

Democrats are not responding in kind. Former Vice President Joe Biden quickly tweeted:

We're already feeling impacts of climate change. Exiting #ParisAgreement imperils US security and our ability to own the clean energy future

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 1, 2017

Former Vice President Al Gore whose global warming efforts have earned him an Oscar and hundreds of millions of dollars issued a statement:

My statement on Today’s Decision by the Trump Administration to Withdraw from the Paris Agreement: https://t.co/eDEFv5b1nS pic.twitter.com/SzHJU3D0Mr

— Al Gore (@algore) June 1, 2017

However, President Trump made clear he wasn’t concerned about America’s “standing” in the world.

“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump said.

"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Pres. Trump says of exit from climate deal: https://t.co/juU9ySueSj pic.twitter.com/53qrBCrrhA

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 1, 2017

Note: The Stream’s John Zmirak will soon be posting a column on the President’s announcement.