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The former US secretary of state described the actions of the Trump Administration as the ‘most extraordinary perversion’ of US government standards – and also told The Independent that the absence of the US from UN climate talks was a key factor in the disappointing outcome of Cop30
Nick FerrisClimate CorrespondentFriday 28 November 2025 15:48 GMTComments
open image in galleryJohn Kerry, the former US Secretary of State and climate envoy, who has been in London this week (AP)
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Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has railed against the second Trump administration, criticising declining standards in politics and perceived levels of corruption among officials.
“This is the most corrupt governance that I have seen in my lifetime,” he said during a speech at Chatham House in central London this week.
“This is the most extraordinary perversion of anything we have fought to have over the last years on disclosure, accountability, conflict of interest, absence thereof.”
He added that former Republican Senator John McCain - who was an outspoken critic of Trump - would have been “screaming” at what was going on, but suggested that it was notable now that there are “no voices” effectively opposing the President from his own party.
Trump has been accused of wide-ranging conflicts of interest in a whole host of different areas during his second administration, from accepting a $400 million plane from Qatar and negotiating Trump Organisation deals in the Middle East, to developing Trump-branded cryptocurrency while also deregulating the sector.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said: “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.”
Kerry said that faith can be restored in politics.
“Most of us believe that we're going to go out in these next months, organise, continue to resist, build up support, and win back the House of Representatives,” he said, predicting a favourable result for the Democrats in next year’s mid-term elections.
open image in galleryJohn Kerry holds his granddaughter as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change in April 2016 at the UN headquarters. The former climate envoy told The Independent that he believes the Cop process is “losing credibility” after the disappointing Cop30 outcome (AP)Speaking to The Independent after his speech, Kerry – who also served as US climate envoy under President Biden – expressed disappointment at the outcome of the recent Cop30 climate conference, and suggested that the format is not working as well as it should.
“[The Cop process] is losing credibility in a lot of quarters; It’s a troubled process right now,” he said, after countries failed to specifically mention the need to transition away from fossil fuels in the final agreement text, due to pressure from petrostates like Saudi Arabia.
The only time that there has been a specific mention of fossil fuels was in the final agreement to Cop28 in the UAE in 2023 – the last conference at which Kerry was climate envoy – and he said that countries need to “get back to the UAE outcome”.
As to why the most recent climate conference failed to reach a more ambitious outcome, Kerry suggested that the absence of the US likely played a big part.
“It was clearly a big factor… it was an invitation for other countries to step back,” he said, adding that in the past, “some countries have come on board because of US pressure, and now they seem to have taken a break.”
Recent climate conferences have seen the US and China drive forward climate action via joint communiqués and there was some disappointment that China failed to adopt a more pressurising role during the most recent talks.
Despite the disappointing outcome, Kerry said that he remained optimistic that the clean energy transition will continue, and that the US will eventually return to the climate fold.
“I am absolutely confident that ultimately we're going to get to a low carbon economy,” he said. “But I am not confident that we're going to get there in time to avoid the worst consequences of what's happening.”
This article was produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
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