Trump still upset over Greta Thunberg 'beating him out' on Time Person Of The Year: 'How old is she?'
President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, reignited her feud with teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, urging her to focus on other countries rather than the United States, insisting that "everything is good" in his country and it is "clean and beautiful." Both Trump and Thunberg are in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. The president, however, added that he would have "loved" to hear her speak at Davos but missed it.
Thunberg, who rose to popularity through her weekly Friday protest outside the Swedish parliament a year ago, has inspired millions of people across the world to take to the streets in an effort to demand emergency action on climate change from their governments.
Trump, while speaking to reporters in Davos, said: "Our numbers are very good, our environmental numbers. Our water numbers, our numbers on the air are tremendous. We have to do something about other continents and other countries. We have a beautiful ocean called the Pacific Ocean where thousands of tonnes of garbage flows towards us, put there by other countries, so Greta needs to work on them," Sky News reported.
The president made the statement despite the US being responsible for more cumulative carbon emissions than any other country in the world.
When the reporters asked about the 17-year-old's critique of Trump's climate record on Tuesday, the Republican asked: "How old is she?" When he was informed about her age, he said: "Oh, that's good. She beat me out on Time magazine." Trump made the statement in an apparent swipe at the teenager who became the youngest person to be named Time's Person of the Year for 2019. The Swedish activist beat Trump, who was also on the shortlist, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Trump-Ukraine scandal whistleblower, and the Hong Kong protesters.
When Trump was asked further about Thunberg's message at the Davos event, the president said: "I would have loved to have seen her speak. I did not." He added that her call for urgent climate action was "unrealistic to a point you can't live your lives."
The president, in a veiled attack at Thunberg and other climate activists on Tuesday, had said: "We must reject the perennial prophets of doom. This is not a time for pessimism. This is a time for optimism."