Melania Trump - Barron bullied over false Autism claims
ASPartOfMe
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Melania Trump Opens Up About Whether Barron Is ‘Autistic’ in Memoir
The former first lady addressed long-running claims that the youngest of Donald Trump’s five children may be on the autism spectrum in her new memoir, Melania, which is published on Tuesday. The Daily Beast has seen a copy of the 184-page book.
The book frequently attacks critics of both Melania and her husband, rehashing many of the controversies involving the couple since Trump ran for election in 2015.
But it is the passage on O’Donnell which may be the most vitriolic about one of the couple’s perceived enemies—and most enlightning about Barron, whose privacy Melania had, until now, fiercely guarded.
The clash with O’Donnell started when Barron, now 18, was the subject of a cruel viral video in November 2016 which purported to show that his behavior had signs of autism spectrum disorder, including not slapping his hands together when he clapped at the end of his father’s speech to the Republican National Convention that year.
The video was given rocket fuel when O’Donnell, the comedian and former co-host of The View, tweeted about it in apparent sympathy, saying that it was an “opportunity to bring attention” to what she called “the autism epidemic”.
“I was appalled by such cruelty,” Melania writes. “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.”
The former first lady makes clear that she had watched every second of the video, which was later deleted by the person who posted it, writing, “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.’”
But, Melania says, his behavior was normal for his age; at the time of the 2016 RNC in Cleveland, Barron was 10.
“There is nothing shameful about autism (though O’Donnell’s tweet implied that there was), but Barron is not autistic,” she writes.
She accuses O’Donnell of “sheer malice,” and calls it “devastating as a parent.” “It felt like my heart was breaking into pieces.”
O’Donnell deleted the tweet and apologized for it, saying that one of her daughters was on the autism spectrum, shortly after Melania hired a hard-charging attorney to go after the original poster, who also deleted the video.
But in the book she writes, “Barron’s experience of being bullied both online and in real life following the incident is a clear indication of the irreparable damage caused.” It is the first time she has suggested that bullying of Barron went beyond online trolling and into his offline experience as a child.
She also attributes O’Donnell’s tweet to the long-running feud between the comedian and her husband, which started in 2006 and which was pursued obsessively by the then-star of The Apprentice on Twitter for years.
The author of the original video is autistic.
These claims were of significant interest on WP at the time.
This is a story where the expression “The road to hell is paved with good intention's” applies. That original poster was doing what too many autistics do, see some quirky traits in a public figure, “diagnose” that person with autism for the purpose of reducing stigma. I do not think Rosie retweeted the original post as a way of getting at the Trump’s. Rosie’s daughter had just been diagnosed that year. She used the hurtful language that was ubiquitous in parental advocacy at the time.
The very bad error the OP and Rosie made was publicly speculating based on slim evidence about the then 10 year old son of the most controversial person of this era.
I am glad Melania said there is nothing shameful about being autistic but I am still uncomfortable about this being brought up eight years after the fact because it looks like Melania is doing what she is accusing Rosie of, using autism as a way of getting back at somebody she is feuding with. I hope Barron was consulted about this beforehand.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I wouldn't trust any claims made by Melania. She says she thinks autism is not shameful? I don't believe that. My sense is that she very much felt attacked that her precious son might not be perfect.
Now, I have no idea what his diagnosis might be. But based on what fellow students have said about him, he has never spent time around his classmates, either in or outside of school, so the likelihood that he was 'bullied' for the suggestion that he might be autistic doesn't ring true to me.
Autism awareness is not served at all by this claim of hers.
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ASPartOfMe
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We have no idea if Barron was assessed for autism or any other disability. We have no way of knowing on what the basis is for Melania’s claim. We have no way of knowing for sure if any public figure is autistic or NT. My rule of thumb is do not claim or suspect any public figure is autistic without strong circumstantial evidence. Acting fidgety at three in the morning at age 10 does not remotely come close to cutting it. There are many reasons why his classmates might dislike him. His father is Donald Trump. For security reasons he does get special treatment, or maybe he is just an as*hole?
Whether Barron is or is not autistic has never been and is not the main issue. Speculating about a then 10 year olds neurology who was a public figure through no doing of his own is a main issue. Using possible Autism as a way of getting at a family member is a main issue.
Let’s go back to 2016 when this whole thing started. If I was in her situation I would be in a panic that now that this norm about using and writing about children of public figures has been broken this will not only be the start of this norm becoming normalized but what else is going to to become an acceptable way of speculating about and using my child is going to be acceptable. I would use everything in my power try and put a stop to it right here, right now. Ethics? I hope I would take that into consideration. Would I? Easy as to say as a keyboard worrier I would. IRL?
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
You mean the way her husband has trashed opponents' children since forever? He's a main reason it's such a problem now, and yet her child was protected from the public in a way that no other President's children have been.
They're all such whiners. She's not all that much different than the family she married into.
Basically, don't dish it out if you can't take it.
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ASPartOfMe
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You mean the way her husband has trashed opponents' children since forever? He's a main reason it's such a problem now, and yet her child was protected from the public in a way that no other President's children have been.
They're all such whiners. She's not all that much different than the family she married into.
Basically, don't dish it out if you can't take it.
Other children of Presidents did not need protection. The media respected their right to privacy and the difficulties involved with being a first child.
Barron was not the one dishing it out at age 10. Punish him for his parents?
It is fair to criticize Barron for going all in MAGA on X now that he is 18. But it should be limited to just that. His physical and mental, health, and neurology should be off limits unless he is running for office, or chooses to discuss it.
Speculation that despised public figures are autistic hurts us by associating us with them. Why do that to ourselves?
Melania deserves criticism for apparently using autism to get at her critics and that is just what I did in the OP. Even it was for all the wrong reasons back then to try and protect her son was the right thing to do.
Unless Trump’s opponent is a Hitler or Stalin type I am voting for that opponent. The last thing I want to do is start going down to his level. I know in 2024 that makes me a dinosaur, so be it.
_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
I was clearly talking about his mother.
Other First Children have very much needed protection. The death threats against the Obama children were particularly egregious, but the public nastiness against Amy Carter and even more so Chelsea Clinton was quite awful as well.
My post was complaining that the parents were being nasty to others, then whining that one of their victims -- O'Donnell -- didn't just take it, but was just as nasty back. Although, I have to say, if she had a child who had just been diagnosed as autistic, I can believe that she was seeing behavior she thought she recognized (whether it's true or not) so she might not have actually been trying to be nasty with that bit. But I don't know. That's not a celebrity I pay any attention to.
We agree that an armchair diagnosis does not serve the cause of supporting autistic people in general, and linking it to a repulsive family really does not do us any favors.
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