New York: US President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed Time magazine's naming of Greta Thunberg as 2019 Person of the Year, saying the climate activist should "chill" and go see a movie. "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 tweeted. The diss came after the magazine on Wednesday honoured 16-year-old Thunberg, who last year launched a solo "School Strike for the Climate," or "Fridays For Future," protest against global warming that has since grown into a worldwide movement and seen her tipped as a potential Nobel laureate.

However, the 16-year-old was prompt enough to revert as she swiftly changed her bio description on Twitter. "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend," her Twitter bio now reads.

While honouring Thunberg for her contribution towards climate change issue, TIME Magazine said, "For sounding the alarm about humanity's predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year."

Screenshot of Greta Thunberg's Twitter Profile:



At 16, Thunberg is the youngest individual ever to be named TIME's Person of the Year. The publication said the annual honour is historically accorded to people who worked their way up the ladders of major organisations and were at home in the corridors of power.


TIME said that in the course of little more than a year, Thunberg from Stockholm went from a solitary protest for climate action on the cobblestones outside her country's Parliament to leading a worldwide youth movement; from a schoolkid conjugating verbs in French class to meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations and receiving audiences with Presidents and the Pope; from a solo demonstrator with a hand-painted slogan (Skolstrejk for Klimatet) to inspiring millions of people across more than 150 countries to take to the streets on behalf of the planet we share.


The US publication also said meaningful change rarely happens without the galvanizing force of influential individuals, and in 2019, the earth's existential crisis found one in Thunberg.

Thunberg has become known for her fiery speeches to world leaders, and was on Wednesday in Madrid, where she accused rich countries of "misleading" people into thinking they are taking meaningful action against climate change.

In perhaps her most iconic appearance, she laid in to world leaders at another UN climate summit in September, thundering "How dare you?" for failing to take action to stop runaway global warming. Her rhetoric, youth and diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, have made her a frequent target of critics.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed her as a "brat," and following her September speech in New York, Trump quipped that she is a "very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

(With inputs from PTI)