Judging how the US administration has turned against its historic allies, while pandering to authoritarian regimes, I'm pretty sure that it's by design, not reckless.
It’s likely a bit of both in this case: they probably equate air quality to “green, woke stuff,” and so want it gone. The reckless part comes from the decision maker not looking into this and seeing the benefit for Americans in any detail. And by not seeing a difference between air quality and climate change.
> And by not seeing a difference between air quality and climate change
Both of them would increase quality of life if we cared just a little bit about them, so I think in their eyes they're more or less the same? They seem hellbent on decreasing the quality of life as far as I can tell, even being outspoken about that "things will get worse before it gets better", so if you try to empathize with their perspective, it does make sense they see them as the same thing more or less.
