J.K. Rowling Apologizes for Anti-Trump Tweets (but Not to Trump)

Problem is, it appears Ms. Rowling did not check her facts. She made a false assumption based on widely circulated, but incomplete, video footage.

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The boy’s mother, Marjorie Kelly Weer, wrote in a post on Facebook over the weekend that Mrs. Rowling had misinterpreted the situation. “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,” she wrote, adding that Monty didn’t much like shaking hands.

The raw video footage showed that Mr. Trump had crouched 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.

Ms. Rowling apologized to the boy and his family, but not to Mr. Trump.

“Multiple sources have informed me that that was not a full or accurate representation of their interaction,” Ms. Rowling wrote on Twitter on Monday. “I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw and if that caused any distress to that boy or his family, I apologise unreservedly.”

Ms. Rowling added that she had subsequently deleted the original tweets, though screenshots of them survive online. A spokeswoman for Ms. Rowling said the author would not comment further.

Ms. Rowling, who may be the world’s most powerful author, has made clear that she is no fan of Mr. Trump, the world’s most powerful politician.

That was clear even before he became president. Two years ago, Ms. Rowling wrote that Mr. Trump was worse than Lord Voldemort, the cruel and malevolent wizard of the “Harry Potter” films and books.

Ms. Rowling appears unlikely to refrain from posting future criticisms. “That man occupies the most powerful office in the free world and his daily outrages against civilised norms are having a corrosive effect,” she wrote on Twitter.

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