While his impeachment is underway in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum — an annual gathering of the top figures in politics and finance — where the issue of climate change is on the top of the conversation. But Trump wasn’t eager to fall in step with the conversation. Instead, he was critical of the climate activists.
Speaking to the world leaders, Trump appeared to take a thinly-veiled shot at 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, saying, “To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse.”
He added later, “They are the errors of yesterday’s fortune tellers and we have them and I have them and they want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen.”
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal in Davos, Trump was asked about Thunberg but said, “I don’t really know anything about her,” and added later that she is “very angry.”
This is hardly the first time that Trump has taken a shot at Thunberg. After the young activist was named Time Magazine’s person of the year, Trump complained on Twitter, “Greta must work on her anger management problem, then go to a good, old fashioned movie with a friend.”
So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill! https://t.co/M8ZtS8okzE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2019
During her speech at Davos, Thunberg asked the leaders, “I wonder, what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing the climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?” Later, she added, “Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour.”
This isn’t the first time that Thunberg has spoke to the forum. In 2019, she told the leaders, “our house is on fire,” and added later, “I want you to panic.”