President Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser, pushed to exclude criticism of a global climate deal from a forthcoming executive order, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday evening.
Several people familiar with the move told the newspaper that the language was axed from an earlier draft of the order after Ivanka and Kushner intervened.
Trump is expected to sign at least two orders in the next several days aimed at unraveling former President Obama’s environmental and climate regulations, according to the newspaper.
{mosads}One White House official told the Journal that Kushner and Ivanka are considered to be a moderating influence on the president’s views of environmental issues and climate change.
Trump, who previously called climate change a hoax created by the Chinese, was highly critical of his predecessor’s environmental policy on the campaign trail and pledged to backtrack on the climate deal reached by the Obama administration and nearly 200 countries in Paris in late 2015.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday declined to say whether Trump plans to withdraw from the accord, deferring to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who the Journal noted backed the Paris deal while serving as CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp.