'Harry Potter' author apologises over Trump tweets

British author J.K. Rowling has apologised for tweets accusing US President Donald Trump of ignoring a wheelchair-bound boy's proffered hand. Picture: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

British author J.K. Rowling has apologised for tweets accusing US President Donald Trump of ignoring a wheelchair-bound boy's proffered hand. Picture: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Published Aug 1, 2017

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London - "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling

has apologised to the family of a wheelchair-bound boy for

tweets in which she accused US President Donald Trump of

ignoring his proffered hand at a media event.

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

Rowling branded Trump a "monster of narcissism" after

footage of a July 24 news conference on healthcare showed the

president seemingly ignoring the three-year-old's hand, but

shaking other people's as he left the event.

Footage of Trump's entrance to the event, however, showed

the president stop to greet the boy and have a brief exchange

before he began speaking.

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

Saying she had discovered that what she had seen was not an

accurate representation of the encounter, Rowling tweeted: "I

very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of

disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I

saw".

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

The author's apology was directed at the boy and his family,

and made no mention of Trump.

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

Rowling, who has over 11 million Twitter followers, is

frequently critical of Trump and his administration on her

social media feed.

That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised norms are having a corrosive effect /3

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 28, 2017

In the three days that elapsed between her original tweets

on July 28 and her apology, Rowling had been the subject of

online criticism, much of it from Trump supporters, for her

comments on the incident. 

Reuters

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