Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling just turned 52, but it wasn’t a completely happy birthday as she was forced to apologize to Donald Trump for mistakenly criticizing the controversial president for ignoring a disabled child at the White House.
She accused President Trump of shunning a 3-year-old boy with spina bifida using a wheelchair during a White House event July 24.
“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,” Rowling tweeted. “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.”
Only one problem: She didn’t see the whole tape, which showed Trump crouching down to shake the boy’s hand.
“He appeared to have gently touched the child’s left elbow, as the boy lifted his clenched left hand,” The New York Times said of Montgomery Weer.
The boy’s mother, Marjorie wrote in a weekend Facebook post that Trump “didn’t snub” her son.
Informed of this fact, the fiction queen deleted her critical tweets and posted four more as apologies.
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
She didn’t get off the hook easily.
BREAKING: @jk_rowling announces she will delete tweet lies about Trump & disabled boy.
Apologises to boy & his family but NOT to Trump.— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 31, 2017
She’s also somebody who jumps to unfounded conclusions cause she doesn’t like Trump, dragging the little kid into it.
— P.S. Real Talk (@PSRealTalk) July 31, 2017
She lacked the grace to apologise to President Trump and THAT says it all. https://t.co/OOleXgji8f
— David Vance (@DVATW) August 1, 2017
She used that kid for her own political statement. No apology to Trump either or for even posting what she did. She stood by it for days.
— Rogue Cuban (@rightcuban) July 31, 2017
The professional liar JK Rowling refuses to retract her smear against President Trump AND the innocent 3 year old child. Disgusting. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/FALQa6J6xw
— Jeremiah A. Schultz (@Lazulu_OFFICIAL) July 31, 2017