Rowling red-faced after wrongly accusing Trump of wheelchair boy snub
JK Rowling has apologised for incorrectly accusing Donald Trump of snubbing a disabled boy.
The Harry Potter author suggested the US President was ‘horrible’ after an edited clip emerged appearing to show him refusing to shake the boy’s hand in the White House.
She tweeted: ‘Trump pretends not to see a child in a wheelchair as though frightened he might catch his condition. How stunning, and how horrible, that he cannot bring himself to shake the hand of a small boy who only wanted to touch the President.’
But her tweets backfired after the boy’s mother, Marjorie Kelly Weer, said Miss Rowling – a critic of Mr Trump – had been mistaken and three-year-old Monty had not tried to shake hands.
On Facebook she said: ‘If someone can please get a message to JK Rowling: Trump didn’t snub my son & Monty wasn’t even trying to shake his hand.’
It turned out that the President had in fact bent down and greeted her son.
Miss Rowling apologised ‘unreservedly’ to the boy and his family in a series of Twitter posts – but failed to apologise to Mr Trump. She wrote: ‘Re: my tweets about the small boy in a wheelchair whose proffered hand the president appeared to ignore in press footage.
‘ Multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction.
‘I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the image I saw. If that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly.’
Miss Rowling had said her mother had used a wheelchair and that she had witnessed people who were uncomfortable with her disability.
Former ‘first daughter’ Chelsea Clinton had previously retweeted Rowling’s attack on Mr Trump, but later apologised for doing so when she reviewed the footage. Miss Rowling was widely attacked on Twitter for her comments and she has since deleted her posts.
In June Miss Rowling was mocked for blaming the media for ‘radicalising’ the Finsbury Park attacker. She had suggested coverage of Brexit and issues involving Muslims in the past sparked the violence near Finsbury Park mosque.
It is thought that Miss Rowling, who 20 years ago was a single mother on benefits, is worth £650million. She was named by Forbes as this year’s world’s wealthiest author. According to the magazine, she earned £72million in the 12 months up to June from the boy wizard’s £20billion global franchise of films, theme parks and merchandise.