PresidentDonald Trumpis using his Twitter account to once again attack teenage climate activistGreta Thunberg, this time to amplify a snide dismissal of her public appearances as “acting.”
The commander-in-chief on Thursday jabbed at the Swedish 16-year-old: He retweeted and praised a Twitter user who criticized thepassionate speech Thunberg gaveat the U.N. Climate Action Summit in New York City late last month.
Though the tweet was written on Sept. 23, Trump, 73, retweeted it Thursday morning.
“Keep up the great work Kellie!” he wrote.
In the original tweet, @Opinion8dKellie also referred dismissively to when a visibly aggrieved Thunberg said at the U.N.: “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”
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For her part, Thunberg wrotein a lengthy Facebook postin February that rumors that she was being “paid” or “used” to speak out on climate change were completely unfounded.
“I am absolutely independent and I only represent myself,” she wrote. “And I do what I do completely for free, I have not received any money or any promise of future payments in any form at all.”
The White House did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about Trump’s continued attacks on Thunberg.
He previously shared footage of her speech on Twitter, adding an apparently sarcastic message: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
Thunberg took the dig in stride and even briefly changed her Twitter bio to reflect his words.
“A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future,” it read, according toscreenshots, though she has since changed it once again.
In an interview with the Scandinavian talk showSkavlan, Thunberg said sheinterpreted Trump’s words as sarcasticbut said that “of course” he would write something like that.
“I mean, you can interpret it in many different ways,” she said. “But I mean, I knew that sometime he was probably going to say something about me. It was like, it doesn’t make any difference, in a way.”
She and Trump also shared abrief but memorable momentat the summit when Thunberg gave him an apparently icy stare that was caught on video.
Greta Thunberg.Greta Thunberg/Twitter
“I was stopped because suddenly he came in and security went, ‘You have to step to the side.’ And I just wondered what was going on,” she said. “And then he showed up. I think I was very shocked.”
Regardless of internet criticism from Trump and others, Thunberg hasrepeatedly brushed off hateful attacks.
Greta Thunberg.LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty
Sheadded, “But don’t waste your time giving them any more attention. The world is waking up. Change is coming whether they like it or not. See you in the streets this Friday!”
She’s even changed her Twitter bio to reflect her sense of humor: “A kind but poorly informed teenager,” it reads.
Thunberg wasnominated for a 2019 Nobel Peace Prizeback in March. She’s been leading youth climate strikes for the past several months and founded “Fridays for Future,” a global movement that encourages students to walk out of their classrooms as a means of taking a stand against inaction toward climate change.
source: people.com
