Schwarzenegger downplays Trump and backs Vatican initiative to ‘terminate’ global warming
BY
NICOLE WINFIELD
Updated 7:36 AM SGT, October 1, 2025
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VATICAN CITY (AP) —
Arnold Schwarzeneggerdownplayed the Trump administration’s climate skepticism Tuesday and threw his weight behind the Vatican’s environmental initiative, saying individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic Church’s moral leadership were far more important to “terminate” global warming.
Schwarzenegger was at the Vatican to headline a three-day climate conference marking the 10th anniversary of
Pope Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical,
Laudato Si (Praised Be).The document, one of Francis’ main legacies, cast saving God’s creation as an
urgent moral imperativeand launched a broad, grassroots movement that Pope Leo XIV has fully embraced and made his own.
Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011. His Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative is one of the backers of the Vatican conference, which is being held at the Holy See’s newly inaugurated environmental educational center in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
At a news conference, Schwarzenegger was asked about President Donald Trump’s recent comments to the U.N. General Assembly, where he falsely said that
climate change was a “con job.” Trump has long been a critic of climate science and policies aimed at helping the world transition to green energies like wind and solar. His administration has rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.
