TL;DR

"Suppose one fast forwards to the Clinton presidency. It’s possible that the way the issue would have been framed during the debates could have limited her policy options. The danger is that framing might outlast the presidential campaign. Call it the “Trump effect”—the ability of a demagogue to distort the issue and force a conversation along highly polarized lines and even lies.

Trump could have framed climate change as a global conspiracy and taking action on it as pandering to China. This is not far from reality: In June 2012 (well before this election cycle), Donald Trump famously tweeted that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” His campaign hasn’t deleted the Tweet; so we suppose he stands by his claim. As ridiculous as it sounds, these can become difficult labels to shrug off. Post-election, Trump supporters might continue with this mindset of “climate change mitigation equals China pandering.”