Donald Trump Targets Greta Thunberg On Twitter After Winning TIME's Person Of The Year Award

United States President Donald Trump tweeted an attack on teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Thursday, a day after Thunberg was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year.

Trump, 73, posted the tweet in the morning calling the decision by TIME “ridiculous” and that Thunberg, 16, should go see a “movie with a friend!”

TIME announced Thunberg as Person of the Year on Wednesday highlighting her work to bring attention to the climate crisis as well as mobilizing her generation to fight for social action.

In a profile of the young Swedish activist, TIME noted that she began her protest in 2018 after skipping school to demonstrate in front of the Swedish Parliament building about inaction over climate change. In 2019, Thunberg catalyzed what the magazine called “the largest climate demonstration in human history” after four million people joined her on Sept. 20 for a global climate strike.

"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!" he wrote. The tweet was a response to a congratulatory one by actress and author Roma Downey.

After Trump’s tweet, Thunberg changed her Twitter bio to “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”

World leaders have criticized Thunberg previously. On Wednesday, Jair Bolsonaro called her a “pirralha,” which means “brat” in Portuguese, CNN reported. Thunberg had tweeted about violence against indigenous people in the Amazon. Russian President Vladimir Putin has targeted the activist previously as well, telling a crowd in October that although Thunberg might be “kind and sincere” she did not understand the complexity of the world.

Thunberg changed her bio to “A kind but poorly informed teenager” in response, according to HuffPost.

Thursday’s tweet also wasn’t the first time Trump has mocked Thunberg on the social media site.

A few days after the global climate strike and after Thunberg admonished leaders present at the UN, Trump wrote that “she seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"

In response to that tweet, Thunberg also changed her bio, writing that she was “a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."