Lifestyle

Trump Cruelly Mocks Greta Thunberg Proving He Can Always Go Lower

by Christina Marfice
Mark Wilson/John Lamparski/WireImage/Getty

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is being publicly bullied by the president

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist who’s been taking the world by storm with her message about climate change, only wants governments to promise her generation a safe future. And for that, she’s been cruelly mocked by adults, including Fox News pundits (no surprise here) and the actual President of the United States (no surprise here, either).

Trump took to Twitter in the late night hours to make sure he got in a sarcastic jab at the brilliant young woman who had just lit up world leaders for letting the planet go to hell and leaving nothing for her generation. “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” he wrote, above a tweet that includes a quote from Thunberg’s UN speech where she pointed out that “people are dying” as a result of climate change inaction. How sweet of him.

It’s not like it’s abnormal to see the president publicly bullying someone, but it takes on a special brand of disgusting when it’s directed at a child. We long ago gave up on the idea that this man might have one ounce of decency in him, but it’s still shocking to see.

Of course, he wasn’t the only terrible man to insult the teen on the same day she delivered a moving and passionate speech at the United Nations Climate Summit. Thunberg was also the subject of a Fox News segment in which a pundit dismissed her because she’s “a mentally ill Swedish child.” Yes, seriously.

The Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and progressive podcast host Chris Hahn were both part of the segment, during which Knowles said, “The climate hysteria movement is not about science. If it were about science, it would be led by scientists, rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left.”

Putting aside the fact that the climate movement absolutely is led by scientists, what a disgusting thing to say about a girl who is doing more to better the world at 16 than Knowles ever has in his life. Luckily, Hahn was quick to jump to her defense, telling Knowles he should be “ashamed.”

“You’re attacking a child. You’re a grown man,” he said. “She is mentally ill. She has autism. She has obsessive compulsive disorder, she has selective mutism. She had depression.”

Thunberg has been open about her mental health, and she was again in her past response to those who feel the need to cruelly cut her down.

“When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you’re winning!” she wrote in a tweet last month. “I have Aspergers and that means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And – given the right circumstances- being different is a superpower.”

Fox News has since apologized, saying Knowles’ comment was “disgraceful” and that there are no plans for the network to have him on air again. However, Knowles is a regular opinion writer for Fox, and is likely to continue to be. Naturally, we won’t ever expect an apology from Trump and he will almost certainly attack someone else by the end of today.

Thunberg has been using her platform and her fame to beg world leaders to listen to scientists, who have been all but screaming at them for years that action is needed to curb climate change. But instead of listening, certain world leaders have resorted to mocking her for daring to ask to have a future on this planet.

In the face of all of this, though, Thunberg has remained calm, graceful, and strong. She clearly isn’t going to stop until there’s action on climate change, and her bravery and persistence are literally helping save the world.