This archive report was first published on 19 December 2019.
On the day after Donald Trump's election in 2016, Jane Fonda, the 82-year-old Oscar-winning actress, hatched a plan to meet the President with a group of 'beautiful, voluptuous, brilliant' climate activists, including Pamela Anderson.
Fonda, a long-time pacifist and feminist, believed that by presenting Trump with a group of influential women, she could convince him to take action on climate change.
She called Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, who referred her to his wife Ivanka, the 'environmentalist in the family.' However, Fonda said Ivanka laughed at the idea and did not take it further.
Undeterred, Fonda decided to take a different approach, moving to Washington for several months to use her celebrity status to drive mass mobilizations and push the government to act on climate change.
Speaking at the National Press Club in 2019, Fonda said she had empathy for Trump, but believed that he was 'so empty, so lacking in empathy and compassion' that he needed to be treated with compassion, not scorn.
She also expressed her concern that if Trump won re-election, activists would still need to be in the streets, holding his feet to the fire, to ensure that the government took action on climate change.
