'Furious' Melania Trump 'appalled' over viral autism video of son Barron
Topics: Melania Trump, Barron Trump, Donald Trump, Celebrity, Politics, US News
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images
Topics: Melania Trump, Barron Trump, Donald Trump, Celebrity, Politics, US News
The world watched on as the Trump family, Donald, Melania and Barron, celebrated the Republican leader getting officially sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.
All three of the family members had some pretty memorable moments during the inauguration with Trump making a pretty major mistake within hours of being in the role, Barron being called out over his 'ear thing' and, of course, the first lady's statement fashion choices.
Speaking of the latter, Melania's always been fiercely protective over Barron - the only biological son she shares with Trump.
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Trump, however, has four other children with three separate women.
Back in 2016, Barron became the brunt of a joke made by comedian Rosie O'Donnell, in which she alleged he had autism.
O'Donnell - who has endured a feud with the Trump family for decades - teased on Twitter ahead of his 2016 win: "Barron Trump autistic? - if so, what an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic."
The tweet came in response to a video of the child clapping without actually slapping his hands together following a speech made by his father at the Republican National Convention.
Though TV personality O'Donnell later apologised for her remark, an excerpt from Melania's titular memoir detailed the mother-of-one's thoughts on the matter, in which she claims the incident left her 'furious'.
"I knew the tweet and video would go viral and I knew how much it would hurt him," she wrote.
"I was appalled by such cruelty. It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism.
"I felt that she was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband."
Despite adding that Barron does not suffer from the neurodevelopment disorder, Melania went on to insist there would be 'nothing shameful' if he did.
She continued: "Someone had painstakingly compiled the footage and added captions like, 'His hands are moving erratically and aren’t touching each other.
"'Then he was spotted making strange movements in his seat, typical of children with autism.'"
The video was eventually taken down after Melania threatened legal action.
Trump has already signed several executive orders which are legally-binding written orders to the federal government that do not require congressional approval.
He's also made some extremely serious moves to end birthright citizenship leaving some to wonder what will happen to Barron's US citizenship.
Barron, whose mother is Slovenian-born Melania, was born in Manhattan back in 2006.
He's a US citizen by birth as, at the time of his birth, Trump was a 'natural-born US citizen' while his mother was a lawful permanent resident who has held a green card since 2001.
This means the executive order wouldn't impact him.