President Donald Trump clearly has decided to satisfy the most petulant elements in his populist base with a tear-it-all-down approach to environmental protection and climate-change mitigation. On gun safety, meanwhile, he dithers as Americans, fed up with mass shootings and other violence, voice ever-louder support for reasonable regulation. To say Trump and his congressional enablers have failed to lead on these issues doesn't begin to describe the utter abdication of their responsibilities to the country.

Luckily, others are stepping up to lead where so-called leaders in Washington have failed — including, of all players, big business. Consider:

— As Trump rolls back Obama-era automobile standards designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, four big carmakers (Ford, Volkswagen, Honda and BMW) have cut their own deal with California to keep standards significantly higher than what Trump wants to impose. Similarly, Trump's offer to roll back emissions standards for the fossil fuel industry has prompted Exxon, Shell and BP to advise against it.

— Following the recent mass shooting at one of its El Paso, Texas, stores, Walmart announced it would stop selling ammunition for military-style weapons. It will discourage open-carry of guns in stores and is pushing Congress for stronger gun-safety measures. The National Rifle Association's prediction that consumers would make Walmart regret its action is fanciful, given that many of Walmart's retail competitors are taking similar stances.

— Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement was his way of thumbing his nose at the world on the issue of global warming. Amazon is now thumbing its nose back at him, becoming the first corporate signatory of a newly formed "Climate Pledge" designed to meet the goals of that agreement, the administration's absence from the Paris accord notwithstanding.

— Iconic gunmaker Colt announced last week it will cease production of its AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which has become the weapon of choice for mass shooters in the U.S.

There are business reasons for all these decisions that have nothing to do with the derisive cries of political correctness that Trump, bizarrely, has leveled at some of them.

Automakers and oil companies want stability in regulations, and they know future presidents are unlikely to keep in place the emissions orgy that Trump is offering. Amazon has been pressed to climate action by its own employees. Colt is responding in part to sales decreases in the wake of bad publicity over mass shootings. Walmart and other stores are responding to customers demanding safety while shopping.

Still, it's encouraging to think all of it might be driven in some small part by the fact that American businesspeople live in America like the rest of us, and can see the changes that need to be made. Why can't our president?

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