And chief executives have been queuing up - or at least tweeting - to share their views too.Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said the withdrawal was "bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children's future at risk", while fellow dotcom billionaire Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter called the move "an incredibly short-sighted move backwards".
So given President Trump's argument that the decision is good for the US economy, why is business - in the US and beyond - so opposed?
Here are a few reasons:
1) The change has already happened
Long before the Paris deal was signed, many of the world's biggest companies were addressing their impact on the environment and their role in tackling climate change.
And in the hours after the announcement, major firms were quick to emphasise that whatever the US's official position on the Paris deal, their own environmental focus would remain.
Facebook's Mr Zuckerberg said it would continue with plans to power every new data centre it builds through 100% renewable energy, while Amazon insisted it remained "committed to putting our scale and inventive culture to work in ways that are good for the environment".
Meanwhile Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai said he was "disappointed" and that his firm would "keep working hard for a cleaner, more prosperous future for all".
Even energy firms, whose businesses have depended heavily on oil and fossil fuels, have long been looking to the future, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into researching and developing more sustainable, clean sources of energy.
US giants Exxonmobil and Chevron had urged President Trump to stay in the Paris deal. And a tweet from Anglo-Dutch giant Shell said "Our support for the #ParisAgreement is well known. We will continue to do our part providing more & cleaner energy".
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