Greta Thunberg recycles Trump's jibe as he tries to 'stop' vote counting
LONDON/WASHINGTON: Swedish teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Friday mocked Donald Trump in his own words, and urged him to "chill" after the US president, trailing behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the election, demanded that the counting of votes must "stop".
When she was named as the Time magazine's Person of the Year in December 2019, Trump told Thunberg, a global icon of the youth climate movement, to work on her anger management problem and "go an old fashioned movie with a friend."
"Chill Greta, chill!" Trump said in his tweet on December 12 in which he described her Time award as "so ridiculous".
Trump was raging on Twitter on Thursday and posted a number of tweets alleging unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud during the presidential election, the results of which are yet to be announced.
Trump with 213 electoral votes was trailing behind Biden, who had secured 253 votes.
The winner must get at least 270 votes out of the 538 electoral college votes.
The 17-year-old used the president's own words to mock him when he tweeted "STOP THE COUNT!" "So ridiculous," Thunberg tweeted in reply to Trump's post.
"Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!" she wrote, in a perfect riposte, which has received some 1.2 million likes.
Thunberg has proved something of a nemesis for the climate crisis-denying US president, The Guardian newspaper wrote.
Trump skipped the climate summit at the United Nations in Septmeber last year during which Thunberg bluntly told other world leaders, "You are failing us."
She also gave Trump an icy stare in a hallway as the president made his way to another event at the UN headquarters, the British paper recalled.
Thunberg's quick reaction to Trump's tweet came as the US formally exited from the Paris climate agreement on Wednesday.
Thunberg has endorsed Trump's Democratic rival, Biden, who has pledged to return the US to the global climate pact on his first day in the White House if he is elected.
Top Democrats, including Biden had responded to Trump's barb against Thunberg in December, criticising the Republican president for taking aim at the teenager.
"What kind of president bullies a teenager?" tweeted the former vice president, adding that Trump "could learn a few things from Greta on what it means to be a leader."
In August, Thunberg also threw her weight behind postponing the NEET and the JEE exams in India due to the coronavirus, saying it is "deeply unfair" that students are asked to appear in the crucial tests during the pandemic as well as floods in parts of the country.
Several students and political leaders across the country had urged the central government to postpone the examination until the spread of the COVID-19 was brought under control.
"It's deeply unfair that students of India are asked to sit national exams during the Covid-19 pandemic and while millions have also been impacted by the extreme floods. I stand with their call to #PostponeJEE_NEETinCOVID," she said in a tweet.
Thunberg has become a leading global voice for action on climate change, inspiring millions of students to join protests around the world.
Two years ago, she skipped lessons on most Fridays to protest outside the Swedish Parliament building, in what turned out to be the beginning of a huge environmental movement.