This week, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was named TIME magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year — and she consequently faced rounds and rounds of mockery from President Donald Trump and his supporters, who seemed perturbed that their Dear Leader didn’t get the largely symbolic, even if high-profile award. They refused to even let this teenager have this moment to herself. While that continued to circulate, former First Lady Michelle Obama posted a message of support for Thunberg on Twitter, who’s now also responded a couple of times to the whining from Trump World.
Trump himself had complained the award for Thunberg was “so ridiculous” and asserted that the high-profile environmental protection activist should “chill” and work on her “anger management problem” — which is rich coming from the guy who has basically made anger the defining point of his time in the public spotlight.
Michelle Obama countered:
‘@GretaThunberg, don’t let anyone dim your light. Like the girls I’ve met in Vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.’
.@GretaThunberg, don’t let anyone dim your light. Like the girls I’ve met in Vietnam and all over the world, you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) December 13, 2019
The former First Lady has certainly been on the receiving end of plenty of her own belligerent attacks from the president’s camp. If you can dream of the racist and sexist insult, then some Republican talking head has likely uttered it in relation to Michelle Obama. Nevertheless, the Obamas remain popular, as do Democratic politics in general — Trump consistently loses when pitted against leading Democratic presidential candidates in polls measuring possible general election match-ups.
Thunberg has actually met with former President Barack Obama before. Now, besides jokingly putting Trump’s mocking description of her in her Twitter bio, Thunberg also responded more directly to the criticism that she’s faced after her TIME honor via insisting that actually, her advocacy is not politically defined.
She explained:
‘I’m sometimes called ”political”. But I’ve never supported any political party, politician or ideology. I communicate the science and the risks of failing to act on it. And the fact that the politics needed don’t exist today, neither to the right, left nor center. If anyone thinks that what I and the science are saying is advocating for a political view – then that says more about that person than about me. That being said – some are certainly failing more than others.’
The failures that she no doubt had in mind have certainly not let up with their resistance to acknowledging even the basic reality of climate change.
If anyone thinks that what I and the science are saying is advocating for a political view – then that says more about that person than about me.
That being said – some are certainly failing more than others.— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 12, 2019
Check out Twitter’s response to the former First Lady below…
