Some administration officials who opposed leaving the Paris climate deal think their colleagues used dubious data to convince President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE to do so, according to The Washington Post.

Pro-Paris figures in the White House thought Trump was presented with misleading or out-of-date information about the international climate accord, the report said.

The debate over whether to stay in the Paris deal split the administration. White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt Edward (Scott) Scott PruittJuan Williams: Swamp creature at the White House Science protections must be enforceable Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE and White House counsel Don McGahn favored exiting the pact.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly pressed Trump to stay in.

Bannon and Pruitt frequently showed Trump data and statistics showing what they said would be the deal’s negative impact on the economy, the report said.

“They were presenting facts and figures,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said. “They were really important. That was the evidentiary case.”

Trump on Thursday said he was formally withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate deal, which includes nearly 200 nations.

“The bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair at the highest level to the United States,” he said at the White House Rose Garden.

“We are getting out, but we will start to negotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that is fair,” Trump added.

The 2015 agreement consisted of individual greenhouse gas limits each signatory nation determined for itself.

The U.S. had pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent by 2025 as part of the nonbinding deal.