Greta Thunberg Says of Donald Trump,’I Don’t Think We Would Enjoy

Activist Greta Thunberg has referred to a Twitter spat she had with former President Donald Trump and expressed pessimism about the ability of world leaders and an upcoming global environmental summit to effect change on the climate crisis.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in October in Glasgow known as COP26, the Swedish teenager described living with fame, her autism, and took aim at the green credentials of New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern.

After saying that her best friends were in the climate movement, Thunberg was asked if she could ever be friends with someone who denied the existence of climate change. She said that she could because, “in one way we’re all climate deniers because we’re not acting as if it is a crisis. I don’t know,” she said, “it depends on the situation.”

She was then asked by the paper, “So there’s hope for your friendship with Donald Trump?”

After laughing, Thunberg replied, “Well, I don’t think we would enjoy each other’s company that much. We have very different interests.”

The former U.S. president mocked Thunberg when she was named Time magazine’s person of the year in 2019.

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

Last year, she got her own back by mocking Trump’s demands for an election recount by tweeting the same message but swapping her name for his.

The 18-year- old has used Twitter to make fun of other world leaders, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and British prime minister Boris Johnson.

However, her irreverence towards the powerful blends into pessimism over their ability to tackle climate change through talking shops like COP26.

“The leaders will say we’ll do this…and achieve this, and then they will do nothing,” she said, “we can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it.”

She also doubted the concern of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern made in June that tackling climate change was a question of “life or death.”

“It’s funny that people believe Jacinda Ardern and people like that are climate leaders,” Thunberg said, “That just tells you how little people know about the climate crisis.” When asked why she thought that, she replied, “the emissions haven’t fallen. It goes without saying that these people are not doing anything.”

Figures released by the Kiwi government in April showed New Zealand’s greenhouse-gas emissions had gone up by two percent in 2019. Newsweek has contacted the New Zealand prime minister’s office for comment.

On Friday, youth activists staged protests across the world as part of a campaign to pressure…