'World needs more young angry women': Greta Thunberg fires back at Trump after return to Paris

The 22-year-old climate campaigner was among 12 international activists aboard the Madleen, a British-flagged vessel operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, late Tuesday evening, fired back at US President Donald Trump after he mocked her participation in a humanitarian aid mission to Gaza and subsequent deportation by Israel.

Trump, on Monday, had dismissed Thunberg as a “strange” and “young, angry person” with “anger issues,” following her accusation that Israeli forces had "kidnapped" her while she was aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship.

Interacting with the press, Trump had stated, “Anger management... I think she has to go to an anger management class… Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.”

Less than a day later, an unfazed Thunberg responded upon arriving in Paris, stating, “I think the world needs many more young angry women, to be honest. Especially with everything going on right now. That’s the thing we need the most of.”

The 22-year-old climate campaigner was among 12 international activists aboard the Madleen, a British-flagged vessel operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The ship, which departed from Italy on June 1, was intercepted by Israeli naval forces in international waters early Monday, about 185 km off the coast of Gaza. The activists were attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, which the UN has warned is on the brink of famine amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas.

Notably, Thunberg and three others accepted immediate deportation and flew out of Israel via France, eventually arriving in Sweden on Tuesday.

According to rights group Adalah, the remaining eight activists, who refused voluntary deportation, have been taken into custody and produced before a detention tribunal.

Israel has banned all 12 activists from re-entering the country for the next 100 years, Adalah further added in its statement.

“This is yet another intentional violation of rights that is added to the list of countless other violations that Israel is committing,” Thunberg told reporters at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

She also accused Israeli authorities of forcibly detaining the group in international waters and said she feared global silence in the face of what she described as a genocide in Gaza.

When asked in Stockholm if she had feared for her life, Thunberg replied, “What I’m afraid of is that people are silent during an ongoing genocide.”

The Madleen mission was the latest effort by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition to challenge Israel’s longstanding naval blockade of Gaza. In a parallel effort, hundreds of aid volunteers also crossed into Libya by land, aiming to reach Gaza with critical supplies.

The latest episode marks a renewed chapter in the public feud between Thunberg and Trump.

Their clash dates back to 2019, when Trump sarcastically referred to her as a “very happy young girl” after her scathing speech at the United Nations. Later that year, he again urged her to “work on her anger management” after she was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.