Credit: Getty Images.

If you searched online this past week for articles about President Donald J. Trump’s decision to sever ties with the World Health Organization, the link to the White House’s own press release was abbreviated in the search results field as, “Withdrawing the United States from the World.”

What an appropriate coincidence.

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On two fronts in particular – health and climate change – Mr. Trump took the nation in the wrong direction immediately upon taking office. Along with pulling out of the WHO, he ordered the U.S. to re-exit the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on reducing fossil fuel emissions to combat global warming.

Both actions pose real perils for the rest of the world, and for Americans. And, sadly, neither comes as a surprise.

Mr. Trump has long called global warming “a hoax” in the face of all scientific evidence and consensus to the contrary. In his........

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