President Trump’s speech on withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement presented one of those awkward moments when everyone has to wonder whether the news media is willfully obtuse or if it really does lack any sense of national pride.

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden on Thursday, Trump said he was withdrawing from the agreement because it put American workers at an economic disadvantage to the benefit of other countries. “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” he said.