Trumpiversary: a year since President Donald Trump gave me a megaphone.

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A year ago today President-elect Trump tweeted me – by accident. I replied highlighting climate change. The story got international coverage.

Ivanka Majic's tweet in reply to Donald Trump. It reads: And you're a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on  Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange.The image also includes an infographic which illustrates that scientists are in agreement that Climate Change is man made.

I had a choice: sit quietly and wait for it to go away, or take the platform offered to me and add my own voice. While I am a person who is vocal and I have opinions, I have never sought any limelight. I was going to ignore it.

The original tweet – meant for his daughter, Ivanka Trump – said: ”@Ivanka Trump is great, a woman with real character and class.” One of the news agencies wanted to bring a film crew to my home to talk to me about “classy women” or some such nonsense. It would be a “lifestyle piece”, they said.

That annoyed me. I thought it trivialised a story that was more serious than that. President elect Trump was showing us all how careless he is – at best – and they wanted to talk about frocks and housekeeping.

So I chose to post a reply. I chose to step up. I thought that the future me would be much happier if I was brave than if I hid. Better to be an active participant in my own story, I thought. I took a little time, asked for input and feedback from people I trust and I pressed the Tweet button.

Thanks to technology I have the medium. And, as it happens, technology is my business. It’s what I do. I am comfortable here, on the Internet. Thanks to President Trump’s carelessness I also got the attention.

It was quite nerve-wracking hitting that button.

“What would people say?”
“Who do I think I am?”

“Who do I think I am?”

When my tiny daughter is much bigger I want her to know that she has the right to speak to anyone. That she has the right to speak up for herself. That her voice counts.

President Trump chooses to use Twitter as his personal soap box. There are more people like me who are inadvertently thrust into the limelight. It’s a fair bet we will become a less and less exclusive group. What remains more of a concern is what he says:

Trump's tweet reads: In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!
Since taking office he has withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement. The US is now the only country not part of the agreement. The only country in the world that isn’t willing to co-operate on preserving our planet.

He continues to put out messages that show a complete lack of understanding of what climate change is.

Being ignorant isn’t great. Being ignorant and powerful is dangerous.

And he isn’t simply ignorant of facts. He doesn’t appear to know how a person in his position should behave. President Trump taunts the North Korean leader on Twitter. He calls him Rocket Man. He went as far as comparing sizes of buttons. It’s rare that you hear one man inviting another to compare “buttons”.

Trump's Tweet reads: North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

How is it that the most powerful man in the world gets to threaten nuclear annihilation as he pleases?

He produces and shares hate speech. On what whim or trigger will the country I live in, or the one you live in get called a “shithole” or get subjected to a travel ban?

I believe that in these times when it isn’t clear if selfishness and ignorance will prevail we have a duty to keep speaking out.

Thanks to my moment of fame I have been able to be part of a few things in a way I never imagined.

My friend David happened across these women at the Women’s March in London.
Two young women at the Women's March in London holding up a banner which says @ ivanka we love your work at Brighton Council

My friend Beth Bell attended the same march in Washington and made my tweet into a poster.

Beth Bell, founder of Green Product Placement holding a poster up with ivanka's climate change tweet at the women's march in Washington DC January 2017

I got messages from people all over the world and that is pretty amazing if you ask me.

People are marching for women, marching for the climate, marching for science. The country that first put a man on the moon is marching for science. No wonder the president can treat climate change like it’s a joke.

How did all this become normal?

Climate change is a force more powerful than us humans. It won’t wash downstream nor will it be a thing that affects somebody else. It will affect all of us, no matter where we live or how rich or poor we are. Whatever our gender or political stance. Climate change is a real threat to our existence and we can’t be complacent.

A nonsense, clumsy, careless tweet gave me a megaphone. You don’t know what will amplify your voice so if you want people to hear what you have to say then you need to keep shouting.

About the author

Ivanka

Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.

By Ivanka

About Author

Ivanka

Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.

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