Denigrated and dismissed on the world stage as an outsider, a menace, and a buffoon, Donald Trump took his revenge on Thursday, spurning the entire international community by announcing his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, joining Syria and Nicaragua as the only nations not party to the global environmental agreement. “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump declared outside the White House, where he delivered a feverishly nationalist speech attacking the rest of the world for taking advantage of the U.S. “At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country?”

The president seemed to revel in his decision, which was instantly and widely condemned by world leaders, business heavyweights, and all five of the country’s most valuable companies. A brass band played lively tunes in the Rose Garden ahead of Trump’s speech, and members of his Cabinet—many of whom were gathered to applaud the announcement ceremony—offered up praise for his leadership. While Disney’s Bob Iger and Elon Musk resigned from the president’s business advisory boards, Hollywood elites rages, and European politicians released blistering statements belittling American leadership, sources close to the president suggested he was galvanized by their sanctimony. “This is religion for the political left, and our supporters are constantly being asked to change their behavior,” one West Wing aide told Axios, explaining that the president was goaded by “snarky comments” from Europe and the preachy attitude of corporate critics who “ride in fossil-fuel-guzzling planes and SUVs, then act holier-than-thou.”

The president’s revanchist attitude has left him more isolated than ever. The largest U.S. companies were almost universally supportive of efforts to combat climate change, including ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, and G.E. A so-far unnamed alliance of dozens of American mayors, university presidents, a handful of governors, and more than 100 U.S. businesses are reportedly preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations for how the country can still meet President Barack Obama’s Paris climate goals even without Trump’s backing. Michael Bloomberg pledged to donate $14 million over the next two years to fight climate change, while environmental leaders like Al Gore and activist groups like the Sierra Club are mobilizing to turn climate change into a major electoral issue in 2018 and 2020.

Internationally, many of the world leaders who implored Trump to remain in the Paris accord during the G7 summit last month offered curt denunciations of the president and dismissed his call to renegotiate the Paris deal. A spokesperson for Angela Merkel said the German chancellor was “disappointed” in Trump’s decision. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed Merkel’s sentiment, calling the choice “disheartening” but said he would work with other U.S. stakeholders to fight climate change. Newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron, who has positioned himself as a manful Trump antagonist, seized the opportunity by filming a video statement in which he told the American people, in English, “France believes in you. The world believes in you,” and closed with an icy “Make the Planet Great Again.”

For critics of the decision, withdrawing from the Paris deal symbolizes an abdication of American leadership in the world. “President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the landmark Paris climate accord sends an unmistakable message to the world: America First can mean America Alone,” wrote the AP’s Julie Pace. In The New York Times, Mary Robinson, a former United Nations special envoy for climate change, said, “The U.S. reneging on its commitment to the Paris agreement renders it a rogue state on the international stage.” But for Trump, going rogue was arguably the point. When the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, reportedly argued that withdrawing would hurt America’s image and moral standing abroad, other advisers dismissed her concerns as hand-wringing. If the question was “what will the world think of us,” as The Washington Post reported, the president’s answer was, essentially, I don’t care.

Advisers close to the president have suggested that Trump was always going to pull out of the climate agreement. “He’s stayed where he’s always been, and not for a lack of trying by those who have an opposite opinion,” Kellyanne Conway told the Post. “He started with a conclusion, and the evidence brought him to the same conclusion.” But the efforts by world leaders to lecture Trump, and to put him in his place, apparently deepened his determination to flip them off. The president was reportedly “irritated and bewildered,” Trump aides said, when he heard Macron bragging about how he had deliberately grappled with Trump during a painful-looking, “not innocent” handshake. A few days after returning from Europe, where Merkel said it was “six against one,” Trump struck back.