President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has always had the uncanny knack of inventing the perfect monikers for his political opponents. It has been evident since the moment he started his Presidential campaign. ‘Lying Ted’ for Senator Ted Cruz, ‘Low Energy Jeb’ for Jeb Bush, ‘Little Marco’ for Senator Marco Rubio worked wonderfully well during the Republican primaries. For his Democrat opponent, Trump invented the moniker ‘Crooked Hillary’, a branding she hasn’t been able to recover from even after four years.
Now, it appears, POTUS Trump has invented a moniker for the climate alarmists like Greta Thunberg. He has called them the ‘perennial prophets of doom’. Urging his audience to discard the pessimism of such alarmists, Donald Trump said during his speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, “To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse.”
“They are the errors of yesterday’s fortune tellers and we have them and I have them and they want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen,” added Trump. He also remarked, “These alarmists always demand the same thing – absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives.”
Read- Greta Thunberg, Climate Change and Indian Dilemma
The ‘perennial prophets of doom’ doesn’t appear too far off the mark as even climate scientists agree that the sermons given by Greta Thunberg and her acolytes such as US House Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are way off the mark. It is also a fact that environmental alarmists have been consistently wrong on critical issues of import for at least thirty years consistently.
Donald Trump’s interaction with Greta Thunberg began when the activist made her atrocious ‘How Dare You’ speech in September last year. The American President had responded to that speech on Twitter with the words, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” Last month, he offered her a bit of advice, “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
Despite his intermittent criticism of Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump admitted at the WEF that he would have loved to meet the climate activist. Greta, who spoke at Davos soon after Trump, only served to confirm Trump’s usage of the description of environmental activists. She spoke along similar lines as she had in her earlier speech and admitted that her theatrics hadn’t affected environmental policies at all.
She mocked those who tell activists “don’t be so pessimistic” while offering only “empty words and promises” rather than action. “Unlike you, my generation will not give up without a fight,” the teenage climate activist her audience. “We are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.”
Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert Comic Strip, argues that Donald Trump’s monikers are the perfect examples of ‘linguistic kill shots’. They are monikers that “can’t be disproved, triggers confirmation bias, is compatible with what we see and hear, will totally get in her game head, will be reinforced every time she speaks in public, and it doesn’t imply anything worse.” The moniker that Donald Trump used for environmental activists is one of those as the behaviour and words of the latter will serve to confirm Trump’s label for them.
Donald Trump already has his nicknames ready for the 2020 US Presidential Elections. For House Speak Nancy Pelosi who initiated impeachment proceedings against him, he has ‘Nervous Nancy’. He calls Joe Biden, who keeps forgetting things and says stuff that are wildly inappropriate, ‘Sleepy Joe’. Trump has labelled Michael Bloomberg ‘Mini Mike Bloomberg’. He has labelled Adam Schiff, another Democrat leading the impeachment charge, ‘Shifty Schiff’. Trump calls the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer ‘Cryin Chuck’.
The most famous monikers among the recent ones Donald Trump has released is, of course, ‘Pocahontas’. He called Elizabeth Warren, one of the three leading contenders for Democrat nominee, ‘Pocahontas’ for her claim that she is a Native American. The moniker had such an impact on Warren that she got her DNA test done to prove that she is indeed one. However, the results of that DNA test conclusively proved that Warren was lying about her race. Moreover, her stunt had angered the native tribal communities of the country, forcing her to issue an apology.
