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Trumps decision on Paris accord has lefties everywhere shitting bricks, crowed Ann Coulter. Now if they could just sh*t some rebar, we could build the wall!

By Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images.

As soon as Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, the landmark international agreement to curtail the effects of climate change, the front page of the Drudge Report lit up with celebrations. But it shouldnt come as a surprise that these werent about all the coal jobs that were saved, or that America had reasserted its interests and the world, supposedly, would not longer be laughing at America.

Instead, the Drudge Report devoted key front-page real estate exclusively to headlines about the elitist meltdown: OBAMA SLAMS AS LEGACY DISMANTLED, Big Business Begged President to Stick With Deal, DiCaprio Urged Moral Decision, and DEM SUPER DONOR: TRAITOROUS ACT OF WAR! among them. The morning afterward, Breitbarts lead story was not about the withdrawal itself but about Ted Cruz slamming Elon Musk for flying on [a] private jet while lecturing Trump about global warming. And throughout right-wing Twitter, the feeds were filled with this:

Much more than any specific policy matter, Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris accord is seen as a right-wing victory over lecturing liberals and their holier-than-thou preaching. The right has a highly articulated philosophy of this dynamic. In right-wing circles, the term virtue signaling has been transformed from an academic term in evolutionary biology into a catchall describing any expression of angry liberal dissent to a conservative idea, particularly on social media. And the moment that the anti-Trump blogosphere erupted in anger against the presidents decision, conservatives, even the ones opposed to Trumps stance to withdraw from the agreement, couldnt help but feel a sense of vindication. At The Weekly Standard, author and Trump critic Jonathan M. Last, who himself believed that it was pointless to withdraw from the accord simply as a matter of greasing the wheels of diplomacy, could hardly suppress his glee from watching liberals go apoplectic.

Here's the thing about virtue signaling: Sure, it's an empty gesture, but usually it's an empty gesture about something real, he wrote, bringing up the social-media reactions to the Iranian revolution or Boko Haram. But the left's reaction to Trump's Paris pullout is something entirely new. It's virtue-signaling about virtue-signaling. It's like the cold fusion of virtue signaling: the moment when the reaction becomes self-sustaining.

This nuanced schadenfreude seems to be shared in the West Wing. This is religion for the political left, and our supporters are constantly being asked to change their behavior, a top Trump aide told Axioss Jonathan Swan, adding that Trump was irked at being prodded by wealthy corporate magnates who ride in fossil-fuel-guzzling planes and SUVs, then act holier-than-thou. (Elon Musk and Bob Iger withdrew their support from Trumps economic advisory council after he announced his decision.)

But Trumps climate rage extended beyond corporate activists. The Washington Post reported that Trump committed to his plan after he saw Emmanuel Macron, the newly elected president of France, openly brag about how he won their handshake-turned-international dominance contest. Hearing smack-talk from the Frenchman 31 years his junior irritated and bewildered Trump, the Post wrote, and it resulted in his controversial Rose Garden declaration: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

The rest is here:
Trump's Paris Withdrawal: Was Causing Liberals Pain Its Central Goal? - Vanity Fair