J.K. Rowling Apologizes for Tweet About Trump 'Ignoring' a Young Boy With a Disability

J.K. Rowling apologized on Monday for a tweet she shared late last week of President Trump seemingly ignoring a young boy in a wheelchair.

“‘When someone shows you who they are, believe them.’ – Maya Angelou,” Rowling tweeted with the clip, which has since been removed. The author continued with a series of heated tweets, stating:

Trump imitated a disabled reporter. Now he pretends not to see a child in a wheelchair, as though frightened he might catch his condition. (unless related to him by ties of blood, and therefore his creations) are treated with contempt, because they do not resemble Trump. My mother used a wheelchair. I witnessed people uncomfortable around her disability, but if they had a shred of decency they got over it. So, yes, that clip of Trump looking deliberately over a disabled child’s head, ignoring his outstretched hand, has touched me on the raw. That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised norms are having a corrosive effect. How stunning, and how horrible, that Trump cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President.

As Rowling’s tweet made its way around the internet, people were quick to point out she’d only shown a portion of Trump’s interaction with the boy. When you watch the full video of Trump’s statement, released by the White House, you can see at the 2:18 mark, the President does greet the boy before moving to the podium.

Rowling shared a series of tweets stating she had not seen the full video and apologized to the young boy’s family.

Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proferred hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage, multiple /1

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017

sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction. I very clearly projected my own /2

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017

sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress /3

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017

to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly. These tweets will remain, but I will delete the previous ones on the subject. /4x

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 31, 2017

Many people have replied to Rowling’s tweets thanking her for rectifying her original tweet, while others have demanded Rowling apologize to Trump, as well.

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