A teenager from Jorhat city in Assam has criticised United States President Donald Trump for mocking global warming. Trump, in a tweet on November 21 in response to the temperature dropping to minus two degrees Celsius in Washington DC, had said: “Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS Whatever happened to Global Warming?”

In her response, 18-year-old Astha Sarmah said: “I am 54 years younger than you. I just finished high school with average marks. But even I can tell you that WEATHER IS NOT CLIMATE. If you want help understanding that, I can lend you my encyclopedia from when I was in 2nd grade. It has pictures and everything.”

The comment has so far received over 23,000 likes and more than 5,500 retweets, with users praising her. But some wondered whether Trump could even understand what she had said.

Trump has long questioned whether climate change is real and has repeatedly denied it exists. In June 2017, he pulled the US out of the historic Paris climate change deal, and later disbanded his 15-member federal advisory panel on climate change. Because of its pullout from the climate pact, the US will probably not achieve its target of reducing carbon emissions by 26% to 28% by 2025.

Trump on Monday said he did not believe a report by his own government that warned of the devastating effects of climate change on the US and the rest of the world.