climate change

Trump Mocks Greta Thunberg for Emotional Climate Speech

Activist Greta Thunberg at the United Nations. Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump made fun of 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg in a late-night tweet Monday, mocking the emotional plea she made to world leaders earlier in the day.

“People are suffering,” Thunberg said through tears. “People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are at the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.

“How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you are doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight,” she said.

Thunberg’s speech brought out the worst is some conservative commentators, who called her “arrogant” and a “freak” and compared her to Nazi propagandists.

By late Monday, Trump decided to get in on the fun, although he wasn’t quite as explicit in his mockery. “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” he tweeted.

Though he was not scheduled to attend the U.N. Climate Action Summit on Monday, Trump did briefly drop by. He crossed paths with Thunberg, and while it’s not clear if he saw her, she definitely saw him.

Thunberg also saw Trump’s tweet mocking her. On Tuesday, she changed her Twitter bio to, “A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.”

Trump Mocks Greta Thunberg for Emotional Climate Speech