Greta Thunberg tipped to win Nobel Peace Prize days after Trump said he deserved the award for 'a lot of things'
Bookies have tipped Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize next week.
Bookmakers such as Ladbrokes published odds that suggest the 16-year-old is set to clinch the award just a week after her furious tirade at world leaders during the UN climate summit, The Local Sweden reports.
The teenager courted controversy following her angry speech and was subsequently mocked on Twitter by US President Donald Trump. "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!" Trump wrote on Twitter in response to a video of her speech at the United Nations climate action summit.
The teenage activist responded to Trump's slight by updating her Twitter bio to read: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."
Trump had also recently lamented that it was unfair he never got the Nobel peace prize. “I would get a Nobel prize for a lot of things, if they give it out fairly, which they don’t,” he said, before recalling how his predecessor Barack Obama was surprisingly awarded one of the world's most prestigious accolades in 2009.
“They gave one to Obama immediately upon his ascent to the presidency and he had no idea why he got it. You know what? That was the only thing I agreed with him on,” Trump quipped at the time.
Obama was given the peace prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people" despite having just become president.
"How dare you?! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I'm one of the lucky ones," Thunberg had told UN delegates during her presentation. "People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing."
"And if you choose to fail us, I say, we will never forgive you," she added as she broke down in tears.
That said, odds are now favoring Thunberg for the Nobel Peace Prize after she allegedly launched a school strike and started the "Fridays for Future" movement.
The movement urges schoolgoing children to skip classes and hold demonstrations against climate change.
Greta has mobilized thousands of children since she first began her protest outside the Swedish parliament last August.
Earlier this month, she was bestowed with Amnesty International's highest honor for her actions. And now bookies think she will also take home the highest accolade for peacekeeping efforts.
Nonetheless, the prediction is rather uncertain as the list of candidates is yet to be made public.
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Thunberg on Wednesday, October 2, for failing to understand the complexity of the modern world.
Speaking at an energy conference, Putin called Thunberg "poorly informed teenager" who was being brainwashed by adults.
According to him, the 16-year-old should "tell developing countries why they should live in poverty" by cutting fossil fuel use.
Furthermore, he said it was deplorable that a teenager was being used by agenda-driven groups to achieve their own goals.