YouTube User Removes, Apologizes For Viral Video Speculating Barron Trump Has Autism

A YouTube creator named James Hunter has deleted a controversial video addressing whether or not Barron Trump, the son of President-Elect Donald Trump, may be autistic. Hunter also said he would offer an apology to both Barron and his mother, Melania Trump, for making the video, which had clocked over 4 million views before it was deleted on Tuesday.

Hunter announced his apology and retraction after being contacted by a lawyer for Melania, who said that the video represented a form of harassment and bullying and threatened to sue, US Weekly reports. Hunter’s clip began to gain steam last week when Rosie O’Donnell tweeted about it on Nov. 21. However, O’Donnell, who has feuded with the President-Elect in the past, subsequently explained on her website that her own daughter was diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism in September, and that she was only sharing the video as a means of spreading awareness.

The seven-minute video offered alleged video evidence that Barron

was exhibiting signs of autism, including the fact that he seemed to be clapping erratically at the Republican National Convention. “A video was posted at YouTube recently speculating that Barron might be autistic,” wrote Melania’s lawyer, Charles J. Harder, in a statement to US Weekly. “He is not.”

Hunter, for his part, said he himself is on the autism spectrum, and therefore made the video in a bid to end the online bullying he was witnessing across social media.

“As someone who was diagnosed at age 5 and has gone through bullying myself, I would NEVER do something like that,” Hunter wrote yesterday in an update within the video’s description box. “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.”