Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s wife, Louise Linton, posted her support for Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old climate activist, and then deleted it moments later.
“I stand with Greta on this issue. (I don’t have a degree in economics either),” said the now deleted Instagram post. This comes after her husband attacked Thunberg for her call to governments to end their support of fossil fuels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, saying she should attend college and study economics.
Mnuchin was also quoted saying in an interview at the event, “Is she the chief economist? Who is she, I’m confused.” He later claimed his comments were made as a joke.
Thunberg responded to Mnuchin by tweeting a graph from a U.N. report on the world’s remaining carbon budget, a topic she spoke of in her speech in Davos. She also added, “My gap year ends in August, but it doesn’t take a college degree in economics to realise that our remaining 1.5 degree carbon budget and ongoing fossil fuel subsidies and investments don’t add up. So either you tell us how to achieve this mitigation or explain to future generations and those already affected by the climate emergency why we should abandon our climate commitments.”
Linton took to Instagram to agree with Thunberg. “We need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels. Keep up the fight @gretathunberg,” she said.
Journalist Olivia Nuzzi posted screenshots on Twitter account, after reporting it had been deleted about half an hour after it was posted.
Other members of the Trump Administration, including President Donald Trump himself, have publicly mocked Thunberg and her activism. After she was named Time’s Person of the Year, Trump himself tweeted, “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
