In what appears to be a senseless rant from a man who was 'trumped over' by a 16-year-old to be announced as 'Person of the Year', the US President Donald Trump once again faced the ire of the world, after his crass remarks on Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist. The hate-filled tweet comes a day after the Time magazine had announced Thunberg as its 'Person of the Year' for 2019. Those in the race for the title also included US President Donald Trump.
Time wrote on its website, " Thunberg won the award for sounding the alarm about humanity's predatory relationship with the only home we have...for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads."
But, while the world was busy congratulating Thunberg for her achievement, particularly amongst the students with her 'Fridays for Future' movement, Trump, instead of applauding the effort of the young girl, took out his frustration on twitter.
'Chill Greta Chill'
Retweeting the congratulatory tweet of Roma Downey, an acclaimed US author, a visibly jealous US President tweeted: "So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill."
The sarcastic tweet aimed at Thunberg, who has an autism spectrum diagnosis, is also being seen as a mockery of US First Lady Melania Trump's highly publicised initiative called "Be Best". The initiative believes that children should be both seen and heard, and it is our responsibility as adults to educate and reinforce them that when they are using their voices – whether verbally or online – they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion.
Thunberg's epic reply rules over Trump
Shutting up the US president once again, Thunberg in her befitting reply to the tweet, updated her Twitter bio- 'A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.'
It is not for the first time that the 16-year-old had given it back to the world leaders for mocking her. Earlier she had updated her twitter bio by describing herself as 'Pirralha' – the Portuguese word for brat after Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro called her a brat.
Trump-Thunberg historical war of words
It is not for the first time that the US president has jibed about Thunberg. In September, the 16-year-old gave a scathing speech at the UN climate action summit, where she lambasted the world leaders for doing nothing to stop the climate change. In her iconic speech which started with 'How Dare You?', a question aimed at those attending the summit, Thunberg spoke about her dreams and her childhood being stolen owing to her fight against climate change.
However, what stood out apart from her speech during the summit was a video and pictures of Thunberg giving an ice-cold death stare to the US President, a staunch climate change denier. The 'stare' soon went viral and a favourite of meme creators. Soon after Trump had tweeted, "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"
Given their case history, it appears that Trump needs to 'chill' as he works to resolve his 'anger-management problems'.
