The world is "laughing (and) crying at the president of the United States, who clearly doesn't know what he's talking about," former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN  on Friday.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which 195 nations signed onto.

"I would ask Donald Trump, does he think that (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping), (France's) President (Emmanuel) Macron -- that the Prime Minister of Great Britain (Theresa May), the Chancellor of Germany (Angela Merkel) -- don't know what they're talking about? Are they stupid?" Kerry, a Democrat, asked. "Is he accusing them of somehow buying into a hoax?"

Trump has previously said that global warming is a hoax invented by the Chinese to harm U.S. manufacturing.

"This is one of the most cynical and frankly ignorant and dangerous, self-destructive steps that I've seen in my entire lifetime in public life," said the former chief diplomat under President Barack Obama.

Kerry called Trump's Environmental Protection Agency head, Scott Pruitt,  an "extremist" who doubts climate science.

In 2014 Kerrry said climate change is as big a threat to the U.S. as terrorism, poverty and weapons of mass destruction.