President Donald Trump’s eldest son Don Jr. has criticized Time magazine for naming Greta Person of the Year 2019 in a mocking tweet.
The businessman denounced the choice as a ‘marketing gimmick’ and said the prize should have honored ‘Hong Kong Protesters, fighting for their lives and freedoms’ – his father was also a finalist.
Tweeting yesterday in response to Time magazine he wrote: ‘Time leaves out the Hong Kong Protesters fighting for their lives and freedoms to push a teen being used as a marketing gimmick.’
Mockingly adding: ‘How dare you?’
Greta Thunberg has been named Time’s 2019 Person of the Year
The 16-year-old Swedish face of climate-activism made headlines after shouting ‘How dare you?’ at world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly earlier this year, accusing them of failing the younger generation.
An image of her stare at Donald Trump as he entered the UN quickly became a social media meme.
Miss Thunberg was up against four other Time’s finalists including anti-government Hong Kong protesters, U.S. house speaker Nancy Pelosi, the anonymous whistleblower who revealed Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July that may lead to his impeachment, and in ironically also Donald Trump.
The young-activist attracted international attention after holding a sign that said ‘skolstrejk för klimatet’ or ‘School strike for the climate’ in Swedish parliament last year.
Donald Trump Jr (left) and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle. Don Jr, 41, and Guilfoyle, 50, a former Fox News host, began dating last year
Tweeting yesterday in response to Time magazine Donald Trump Jr wrote: ‘Time leaves out the Hong Kong Protesters fighting for their lives and freedoms to push a teen being used as a marketing gimmick. How dare you?’
The activist has drawn increasingly large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half.
Veteran campaigners and scientists have welcomed her activism, including her combative speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming.
Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told the Today show: ‘She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement.’
The schoolgirl was seen at the UN headquarters in September with an enraged expression on her face as President Trump upstaged her entrance by walking in flanked by news reporters
He confirmed she is the magazine’s youngest ever choice. Malala Yousafzai was runner up in 2012, losing out to Barack Obama, aged 15.
U.S. president last month signed legislation backing the Hong Kong protesters in their fight for democracy – which could be the reason for his son’s backing.
The protests begun in March when an extradition bill, now suspended, called for those facing trials to be sent to mainland China, which was seen as a threat to the region’s autonomy.
Thunberg has not responded to the criticism but retweeted Time magazine’s cover featuring herself.
Thunberg delivers a speech during the COP25 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, December 11. She accused political and business leaders of polishing their images rather than taking aggressive action in the fight against climate change at the UN climate talks
Today President Donald Trump lashed out at 16-year-old global warming activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday and told her to ‘chill,’ as he called her Time magazine ‘Person of the Year’ award ‘ridiculous.’
‘Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!’ Trump tweeted
The president was responding to Christian filmmaker Roma Downey, who tweeted the Time cover with the word ‘Congrats.’
Minutes after his tweet, Thunberg changed her Twitter profile biography to read: ‘A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.’
Thunberg was in Madrid on Wednesday, where she addressed negotiators at the U.N.’s COP25 climate talks.
There she accused political and business leaders of polishing their images rather than taking aggressive action in the fight against climate change at the UN climate talks.
In a speech the teenager also criticized governments for avoiding taking action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and ‘not behaving as if we are in an emergency’.
Greta said: ‘The biggest danger is not inaction; the real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done apart from clever accounting and creative PR.’
She said the science showed that, at the current rate of emissions, the world is set to use up the whole ‘carbon budget’ – the amount of pollution that can be put into the atmosphere and still keep global warming to 1.5C – in eight years.