Melania Trump’s new memoir, Melania, has just dropped. In it, she addresses rumors that her son Barron Trump is autistic. She recounts the difficulties that Barron went through after a now-deleted video was released on YouTube in 2016 analyzing his behavior for autistic traits. The video ended up going viral when it was retweeted by former The View co-host Rosie O’Donnell—a move that was seen as a slight by the Trumps.
Melania refutes rumors that Barron is autistic in memoir
According to The Daily Beast, in her new memoir, Melania Trump plainly states that Barron isn’t autistic. She claims that he was bullied because of the accusation and laid the blame on Rosie O’Donnell for helping the video asserting he was autistic go viral.
The video suggesting that Barron was autistic is no longer available, but supposedly wasn’t made with ill intent. The creator, James Hunter, claims he was diagnosed with autism at age five and wanted people to stop making insensitive comments over his “weird behavior.” Hunter voluntarily deleted the video after learning that the Trumps found it offensive (and that they may be planning to take legal action).
Before deleting the video, he released a statement:
“TMZ just contacted me to tell me Melania Trump is threatening a lawsuit over this video, and wants a public apology from me. I’m absolutely terrified right now, and I’m not sure if this is actually true or not.
I just want to repeat myself and say that I never ever meant this as a bullying video. As someone who was diagnosed at age 5 and has gone through bullying myself, I would NEVER do something like that. I made this because I truly believed Barron was on the spectrum, and I wanted people to stop bullying him over his “weird” behavior and explain to them that it might actually be due to a condition.
If this rumor turns out to be true, and Ms. Trump really wants this video deleted, I will. I have a great respect for her and her family. I never meant to hurt anyone.”
It seems like eight years later, Melania levels most of the blame at Rosie O’Donnell, who tweeted the video out with the message, “Barron Trump Autistic? if so – what an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic.”
The Trumps viewed the tweet as malicious and cruel, which deepened the feud between O’Donnell and Donald Trump. O’Donnell deleted the tweet and apologized, stating she had a daughter on the autism spectrum, but that did nothing to assuage the situation.
