Does Trump really want to put China in charge?

The Trump camp has long been rattling the saber when it comes to environmental regulation and climate change. Donald Trump himself famously called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese. Well, it now stands that if they follow through with their threats to gut environmental laws and pull out of the Paris Treaty, the very country they'll promote to world leader on these same issues is none other than China. How poetic.

Outgoing White House science adviser, John Holdren, gave an interview to Eos magazine, which reported,

“If the United States were now to back out and say, ‘We’re no longer going to lead,’ the leadership would then fall solely on China’s shoulders,” he said. Last month, Zou Ji, deputy director of China’s National Centre for Climate Change Strategy, told Reuters that if the United States abandons efforts to implement the accord, China’s influence in global climate governance likely would increase.

“I think before anybody considers very seriously changing the U.S. position, they ought to ask themselves, ‘Do we want China to have the sole global leadership in this domain?’” Holdren said. “What are the wider consequences of that? Is that in our national interest?”

The deniers will have to face the fact that there are consequences to your actions. I wonder if they're really prepared to deal with those consequences.