On the final day of his presidency, Greta Thunberg has taken one last chance to troll Donald Trump. Alongside a picture of the outgoing president boarding a helicopter ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration today, Thunberg wrote: “He seems like a very happy old man looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
By now, the teenage climate activist has a long history of clapping back at Trump’s insults over social media. It’s only fitting that her recent tweet is a throwback to one of his tantrums in 2019, when he mocked her speech at the UN climate action summit.
Last year, Thunberg similarly outplayed Trump with a reference to a 2019 tweet in which he whined about her being named TIME’s Person of the Year. In a near-identical response to his desperate urge to “stop the count” in the wake of the 2020 election, she wrote: “Chill Donald, Chill!”
This time, Thunberg will also enjoy the last laugh, given Trump’s permanent Twitter ban. He was kicked off the platform for good earlier this month after repeatedly violating its rules following the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.
Throughout his presidency, Trump caused lasting climate damage, getting rid of vital regulations, stoking misinformation, and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement – an international commitment to reduce emissions and curb the global average temperature rise.
On day one of his presidency, Joe Biden has signed an order to re-enter the Paris Agreement, and has long pledged to undo Trump’s rollback of environmental policies.
Late last year, however, Thunberg criticised world leaders for failing to act on the promises outlined in the agreement to safeguard future living conditions. “The action needed is still nowhere in sight,” she said in a video posted to Twitter. “The gap between what we need to do and what is actually being done is widening by the minute. We are still speeding in the wrong direction.”
