Senator Whitehouse criticizes Trump for refusing to support COP30

The White House has called Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse a victim of fraud after he publicly complained that the Trump administration would not fund or support his participation in the COP30 climate change conference in Belém, Brazil, this week.

The Trump administration largely ignored the conference of world leaders on climate change; a stark contrast to former President Joe Biden who sent Clinton confidant John Podesta to lead a large US delegation to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2024.

“Unfortunately, Senator Whitehouse was the victim of the greatest scam of the century: the Green New Scam,” White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said of Whitehouse, DR.I.

“The senator may foolishly spend time and money on this radical ‘climate’ conference, but the Trump administration refuses to waste taxpayer dollars.”

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Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse speaks during a hearing. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Whitehouse spoke at a news conference on the House side of the Capitol Thursday with the blessing of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Whitehouse held up his COP30 badge and lamented that he did not refer to it as representing the “United States of America” but rather “the Global Organization of Legislators for a Balanced Environment: GLOBE”.

This group was co-founded by then-Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., and the late Sen. John Heinz III, R-Pa. in the 1990s, and Whitehouse said that without Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s State Department support, he was counting on an “energy and environment coalition” in the House of Representatives to facilitate his moves.

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Whitehouse said the conference – which California Governor Gavin Newsom also attended – showed a “failure of the United States to be present.”

“For the first time in history, to my knowledge, the State Department has refused to support or facilitate my travel or accreditation. My accreditations do not mention United States of America,” he said, adding that it is generally State Department or executive branch protocol to support “CODELs” or congressional delegations.

“(T)he State Department refused to support this – that’s how bad the Trump administration has become.”

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Whitehouse said President Donald Trump was ignoring COP30 because he was not effectively representing the US government on climate issues.

“He represents the fossil fuel industry, and in particular its big billionaire donors,” Whitehouse said, before walking back his assertion at the conference that “carbon pricing” – which critics call “carbon taxes” – is crucial.

“The good things that have come out of COP(30) so far mean the plane is crashing higher up the mountain. But if you want to get the plane over the top of the mountain safely, you have to have carbon pricing.”

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The Ocean State Democrat said he warned European COP30 participants to stand their ground if Trump attacks their climate commitments.

Jeffries then echoed Whitehouse, saying Trump showed a reluctance to address “issues important to the American people,” including climate change and affordability.

“The Trump administration and the United States government chose not to be involved and engaged at the most recent conference, essentially ceding leadership on this global issue to our rival: the Chinese Communist Party – while leaving America and Americans behind,” Jeffries said.

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Meanwhile, Daniel Turner, founder of Power The Future, a Virginia group that focuses on advocating for energy policy focused on the industry’s effects on workers and rural communities, said Whitehouse was out of line to address such an issue.

“It was bad enough that, while the nation was reeling from the Democratic government shutdown, Senator Whitehouse took a tropical vacation and praised the Chinese Communists,” Turner said.

Turner appeared to reference a Fox Business segment in which Whitehouse filmed himself at COP30, lamenting his solitary official presence and explaining the size of the official Chinese “pavilion.”

“I will never embrace the Chinese communists who use slavery and child labor to build crappy wind and solar plants that drive up the price of American electricity,” Turner said, adding that it showed how “out of touch” the “blue blood, whites-only Country Club, Whitehouse” was.

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In 2021, Whitehouse refused to apologize for his family’s membership in a Newport, RI club accused of, but denied, retaining a discriminatory membership policy.

“I think the people who run this place are still working there, and I’m sorry it hasn’t happened yet,” Whitehouse said at the time.

Whitehouse further defended his presence at COP30 in a statement this month, saying Republican “corruption” is deliberately raising costs for American families to benefit fossil fuel industry donors.

“Amid declining approvals and bombing in the most recent election, it is no surprise that the Trump administration is unwilling to defend the unpopular and corrupt lies of the fossil fuel industry’s climate denial on the world stage,” Whitehouse said.

“In Belém, I hope to rally our allies to stand firm on climate action, including CBAM, in the face of attacks from the fossil fuel villains who run the Trump administration. There is no path to climate security without CBAM, and we must protect this path at all costs.

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.