Trump posted insults about Thunberg weeks after his family was outraged over mention of teen son Barron at congressional hearing

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Incensed perhaps by her selection – and not his – as Time magazine’s person of the year, Donald Trump opened Twitter fire Thursday morning on the climate activist Greta Thunberg.

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Trump, 73, tweeted that Thunberg, 16, who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, had an “anger management problem” and should “chill” – no pun apparently intended.

“So ridiculous,” the president wrote. “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”

Thunberg has caught the ire of many US conservatives for helping to spotlight a climate emergency which her critics pretend does not exist. But Trump’s attack on her, in personal terms, from his presidential bully pulpit struck many observers as a marked and hypocritical escalation.

Trump’s wife and his eldest son recently reacted with outrage when a witness called by Democrats to testify in the impeachment hearings punned on the name of Trump’s 13-year-old son, Barron, to make a point about how presidents are not kings. Melania Trump is the nominal head of an initiative against online bullying called “Be Best.”

“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” Melania Trump wrote at the time.

Thunberg swiftly changed her bio description on Twitter. “A teenager working on her anger management problem,” it now reads. “Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”

The irony of Trump’s attack on Thunberg so soon after the what-now-looks-like-manufactured outrage over the mention of his son in a congressional hearing was not lost on Twitter.

Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) [Apparently calling out the first name of a child is only NOT okay if it’s Barron. That said, no one will ever hold Trump or Melania or any of the others who pretended outrage, accountable. And few in the media will consistently call out this hypocrisy] https://t.co/oZoRtdOmqy

Jessica Shortall 🧂 (@jessicashortall) I see the President is mocking Greta Thunberg to the delight of his base.



A quote from 8 days ago, from his wife: “you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it”

David Mack (@davidmackau) the president is attacking a child bc she was honored by a magazine and not him, is a sentence i am typing in this year of our lord 2019 https://t.co/NulLnavSE5

Karen Travers (@karentravers) Greta Thunberg was named TIME magazine's 2019 Person of the Year.



She has been very vocal about her diagnosis of Asperger's, a neurological disorder characterized by difficulty with social and communication skills, comparing it to a "superpower." https://t.co/ihIVCTV39Q https://t.co/ExpFSWkZiZ

Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) .@DonaldJTrumpJr your dad is attacking a teenager again. Time to revive your twitter horror at a politician saying something about a kid. You can do it, Junior.

A Time magazine cover image capturing Thunberg as person of the year was released last week. Trump once had a fake Time magazine cover with his own picture framed and hanging in his office in Trump Tower.