President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed the claim that Israel had "kidnapped" activist Greta Thunberg, and said she needs anger management.
“Do you have a message for Greta Thunberg? And did she come up during your call with the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] today?” a reporter asked Trump during an unrelated event at the White House.
“Well, she’s a strange person. She’s a young, angry person. I don’t know if it’s real anger. It’s hard to believe, actually. But I saw what happened. She’s certainly different,” the president said about the activist, who has Asperger’s syndrome. “I think she has to go to an anger management class.”
Thunberg and 11 other activists had been on a boat that was bound for the Gaza Strip in order to protest and bring aid to Palestinians, as Israel blocks most aid and food from reaching Gaza. Israeli forces on Monday detained the boat when it arrived at an Israeli port as part of its blockade on the enclave. According to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which claimed the boat had little aid, the protesters were undergoing medical checks. Adalah, a legal rights group that represents the group, said they would be detained and then deported.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organized the journey, said Thunberg and her companions had been “kidnapped by Israeli forces” — a claim to which Trump expressed skepticism:
“I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” the president said.
