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Man with autism apologizes for suggesting Barron Trump may have autism

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk and Brianna Chambers

Donald Trump embraces his son Barron Trump after he delivered his speech on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. 

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk and Brianna Chambers

A video that suggested Barron Trump, Donald Trump's youngest son, might have autism was removed from YouTube Tuesday after Melania Trump's lawyer threatened to sue the man that uploaded the video.

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"The video regarding Barron Trump has been removed, and the person who posted it has retracted it and apologized for it at the same YouTube page," the lawyer, Charles J. Harder, said. 

The seven-minute video, which was promoted on social media by Rosie O'Donnell, showed clips of Barron, 10, at events like the Republican National Convention and during Donald Trump's presidential acceptance speech on Nov. 8.

The video's creater, James Hunter, said since being pludged into the spotlight, Barron has exhibited behavior similar to those who have autism. Hunter's video showed Barron "moving erratically" while clapping, "making strange movements" while sitting, walking "wobbly" and expressing a "lack of social skills and understanding." Charts shown in the video said that at 60, the age Donald Trump had Barren, "the likelihood of autism (increasely) drastically."

"A video was posted at YouTube recently speculating that Barron might be autistic. He is not," Harder said. "The video includes the hashtag #StopTheBullying, but yet the video itself is bullying by making false statements and speculation about a 10-year-old boy for the purpose of harassing him and his parents."

In an apology, Hunter, who said he has autism, said he didn't mean any harm when he created the video.

"I never ever meant this as a bullying video," Hunter wrote. "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 ... I have a great respect for (Melania) and her family. I never meant to hurt anyone."

Cox Media Group

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