U.S. withholds backing on climate pact

President Donald Trump declined to endorse the Paris climate accords on Saturday, ending his first foreign trip much as he began it: at odds with several of the nation’s allies and under a cloud of questions back home about his ties to Russia.

Trump refused to bend on the pact after three days of contentious private debate and intense lobbying by other leaders that began Wednesday with an appeal by Pope Francis. The six other nations in the Group of 7 reaffirmed their commitment to cutting greenhouse-gas emissions in a joint statement issued Saturday. Decision expected soon

The stalemate leaves the country’s future role in the climate accord in flux, though Trump promised to make a decision in the week ahead on whether the United States will be the first of 195 signatories to pull out.

Trump left Italy on Saturday afternoon, returning home to a White House in crisis after a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe that was bookended by new disclosures about links between his aides and Russia.

The climate accord was the most vivid sign of division between the United States and its allies, but it was not the only one: Trump also scolded Germany over that country’s trade practices and lectured NATO members for not adequately supporting the alliance.

“There was a lot of giveand-take between the different countries in the room,” said Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council.

President Emmanuel Macron of France said he had told Trump it was “indispensable for the reputation of the United States and for the Americans themselves that the Americans remain committed” to the climate agreement. Policies under review

The G-7 statement provides the United States more time to resolve internal White House debates about whether to pull out of the pact. It says the United States is “in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics.”

The president did not mention the impasse in his only public remarks after the summit, to U.S. troops at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. But he repeated his complaints about trade and the financing of NATO, even as he pronounced the trip a rousing success.

“We hit a home run no matter where we are,” he said.

Luca Bruno / Associated Press President Donald Trump, with wife Melania on Saturday prior to addressing U.S. military troops and their families at the Sigonella Naval Air Station, in Sigonella, Italy, had a strong assessment of his first foreign trip as president. “We hit a home...