Top White House aide Kellyanne Conway on Friday refused to say whether President Trump believes climate change is a hoax, twice shutting down ABC host George Stephanopoulos's questions on the matter before saying, "You should ask him that."

"The president believes in a clear environment; clean air, clean water. He's received awards as a businessman in that regard," Conway said on "Good Morning America," after Stephanopoulos first asked about the president's view of climate change.

"And he made very clear what he doesn't believe, which is that the U.S. government should stay in an agreement that gives us too much of a financial burden," she continued.

"Too much risk to these industries, where - the coal miners, people who work in cement and paper."

Asked a second time about whether Trump thinks climate change is a hoax, Conway delivered a nearly identical response.

"He believes in clean air, clean water, a clean environment, and he believes that we have to negotiate better deals for this country and that there's a balance between environmental protections and economic growth," she said.

Trump has called global warming a hoax in the past, writing in a November 2012 tweet that the phenomenon was "created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

But Trump rarely addressed climate change as a presidential candidate and has continued that relative silence since taking office, making it unclear whether he continues to deny climate change.

He has, though, vowed to do away with environmental regulations that he has argued stymie business and economic growth.

He announced on Thursday that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, fulfilling a campaign promise and delivering his firmest rebuke to date of the Obama administration's environmental policies.