This is such a personal decision. Should one sacrifice their own child's privacy for the good of "all those like him"? It is one thing to be an adult and decide to use your malady as a bully pulpit. It is another to decide that for a child, even if he is "yours". I do agree with what you didn't do but are intimidating people should do--stop speculating on this young boy and let him live his life. Why is this fair fodder? Presidents have always asked that the media (Rosie et. al.) leave their young children the heck alone. I say lets LET THIS GO!!!

I think an edited amalgamation of clips can be misleading.

I also think it isn't anyone's business and that the parent's responsibility is to the child, not the cause.

Oak, I know you don't mean any harm but really? I CANNOT stand Trump, I hate everything about him and what he stands for, but his son is 10 and should by all accounts be off limits regardless of what if any issues he may or may not suffer from. Shame on Rosie O'Donnell, she really is no better than Trump is.

Let it go, stop speculating, gossiping, trying to read into things that are no one else's business. Stop reading the articles so they stop getting the clicks they need to keep perpetuating cr*p like this. There really are far more important issues to focus your energy on.

Play nice. Okay. I firmly believe the children of the president, heck, of anybody, should be off limits to the media. If Rosie tweeted, that was truly out of line. I detest DJT with all my being. I can't remember when I had such a visceral negative reaction to another human being. The older sons are totally creepy. If Barron is on the spectrum, perhaps they should not have trotted him out when DJT gave his victory speech (excuse me while I hurl, but I digress). The kid looked really odd standing next to his father. His facial expressions were "off". If that is the case, I have no doubt he is getting the finest care and education. He really deserves his privacy and I hope going forward he gets it. The Trumps can make their own decision about what they feel is appropriate to share, not that the media will not nose it out.

I agree with lukki and I feel rather icky even responding.

I never said there is shame, Mimou. I don't find the topic to be "icky" at all. I will respect Trump in whatever decision he and Melania make. The reason I asked what you all thought is because of the possibly wonderful things that could be done for autism. OTOH, his son is just a kid and I would hate for him to see his name on TV, online, and in the papers.

It's quite the conundrum. There is mental illness in the Queen's family which I suspect is why Prince William and Kate have chosen mental illness as their "cause."

Anyway, I see I stepped on everyone's toes. I did hesitate to do this topic because I've always been an easy target here which has baffled the he!! out of me. I'd remove the topic if I knew how.

ETA, it's not just the video that has people wondering, and this topic is everywhere. That's why I brought it here, just to get opinions on the topic, not me.

My feeling is that it just isn't a topic worthy of discussion. I don't think that you are an easy target, Oakley. Not to offend you, but I think the topic does come off as gossip-y (if that is a word). That was the 'icky' part for me.

I can't imagine my 10 year old being vertical at 3am, much less standing in front of that kind of crowd. I don't think it's worthwhile to speculate based on that video and IDK anything else about Barron other than I pity him for living in his father's shadow.

Why would anyone believe Rosie and what business is it of hers? I haven't read about this before but the "clues" the O.P posts are remarkably slender, at best. And even if he is on the autism spectrum, so what?

The night of the election, IIRC, I did think it was odd that when Trump was done with his speech, Barron was the first one in line behind him but Trump seemed to ignore him and instead went to hug Melania then proceeded down the line to his other kids. I chucked it off to Trump probably being the type of person who really can't relate to kids, even his own, until they are adults. And I figured Barron was just tired and bored. It never crossed my mind he might be autistic or anything else.

I can understand any parent not wanting to switch schools in the middle of the year. I did wonder if this was a smokescreen though and an excuse for them to live apart most of the time. Perhaps she would have left Donald if he hadn't won? I don't think Melania has much interest in living in the WH or being First Lady any more than Trump does being President. I guess we'll find out in June if it was just a school issue or not.

As far as Barron being autistic or not, no one should be speculating about this on social media. Minor children are off limits.

I am thinking that the fact that this is "all over the news" is news to me. This is the first time I have heard of it. I obviously live under a rock. As the mother of a child with special needs and having a 20+year career in the field of autism, I will say that you CANNOT diagnose anyone via a film clip, nor should you.

It's come up twice in my Google news feed since Thanksgiving, probably because I read a lot of election news. It's in stories about Melania's decision not to live in the WH and speculates that autism is the reason. I've never seen either of these news sources before.

I think posting a thread about this is no better than what Rosie did.

Well - I had no idea that people were speculating about this. In fact when I read your title I was totally confused and at first thought that Rosie had overdosed. Unfortunately this reminds me of the lurid headlines you read on those awful papers on the racks at gas stations and food stores.

Regardless of what I think of the Trump family I honestly hope this gossip goes away - every child deserves privacy. And I don't believe the President-elect has any special responsibility to address this issue. As for the clues you mentioned - they certainly don't prove anything.

What I think is that the propensity of many, many people to "diagnose" autism based on a few anecdotal tidbits is a major pet-peeve of mine. I think it diminishes the struggles of the individuals and families who struggle every day with the effects of this process.

If DT's son does have autism, his refraining from the leveraging the issue during the campaign would give me some respect for the man.

I also never heard about this until this thread. I've seen plenty of news sites over the past two days and have seen nothing on this.

And by the way, didn't the Obama girls finish out the school year in Chicago before moving to DC? I believe their grandmother stayed there, too, before moving with them to the White House.

Bpathome, I don't think so.

"it's about responsibility of the President-elect."

Responsibility for what?

Whether or not he has special needs is no one's business but the family's.

First I'm reading/hearing of it. I wouldn't throw a cup of water on Rosie O'D if she was on fire. What a hateful, rude, crass human being she turned out to be. I would purposely not believe anything she said just due to the fact that she said it! BLEH!

BPathome, No, they moved as a family. (ETA - but I don't think there is anything wrong with waiting until school is out for any family that chooses that! In fact, I don't think it is our business where they choose to live at all, ever.)

Monica, While I think T takes the cake for a "hateful, rude, crass human being", there is no justification for any sort of rumors or gossip about minors. Even though a politician I greatly respect, John McCain, made fun of Chelsea. To me, it is lower than low. I would say she should apologize but that makes it even more of a story, so she should shut up.

My .02 cents, of all the threads that vanish, I hope this one joins them

Rosie O'Donell should worry about her own house before commenting on others. Considering the current political climate in Washington DC, it would be extremely difficult for young Baron to start a new school mid year. Where is he going to attend? The Sidwell School with the Obama daughter?

She should be ashamed of herself. He's a child.

Personally I think anyone who even has time to think about this must be perfection personified.... Me....I need to go dust my bookshelf, write my Christmas cards, vacuum, do the sheets, etc etc etc.

Nobody's business, Especially since it is a child. Bringing it up here is just feeding into the frenzy.

First I have heard of this as well. What on earth could Rosie possibly hope to accomplish by drawing unwanted attention to a 10 year old boy?!? To claim that this could be used to promote a cause or raise awareness is absurd, and absolutely inappropriate. I feel physically ill when I look at Donald Trump, but his little boy has such a precious, sweet face and my heart goes out to the child. He, like children everywhere, should be guarded and protected and certainly not made the subject of self-serving tabloid fodder.

Oakley, you have a son and I'm sure you often think back to when he was small. I know you'd have done everything in your power to protect him from hurtful, inappropriate comments about his development. The young Trump child deserves the same.

IdaClaire, thank you. I could not have said it better. MIL was remarking at TG what a beautiful boy he is.

The parents make a choice with their careers and public image, but the minor children are off limits.

Maybe in the interest of privacy and concern, the national media are not mentioning this story.

It will be a new low if the media bites and it sure was for RO who already has a long history of being a classless wreck

In all fairness to Oakley, this story is now "trending" on Facebook. Oak just reported it here before many of us saw it elsewhere.

Maddielee, the fact that it is trending on FB would seem to confirm the voyeurism of the topic. I am not sure I would use that as a reason to justify anything.

Just asking that Oakley not be beaten up over her wanting to know how others think on the subject. Sometimes people do want to know if their thoughts are inline with otjers

l

Rosie's 3 1/2 year old was recently diagnosed with autism and she said that's why she was curious about Barron.

https://www.rosie.com/what-we-see-and-why/

If her concern was genuine then she should've approached the Trumps privately if she felt so strongly about speaking to such an intensely personal matter. That she chose to broadcast her thoughts regarding the child of a man with whom she has a contentious history via social media makes her motives suspect, to say the least - in my opinion, of course.

At the very least, she exercised poor discretion. I also dislike the way she uses her explanation of why she tweeted about the child as a platform to lash out at Donald. She's kind of all over the place and I'm not sure why people follow her.

I'll note that the first time anyone mentioned the possibility to me was not from O'Donnell's tweet but from someone arguing with me on FB about the reason why Mrs. T wasn't moving into the WH in January. This was days before the tweet, I had never heard it mentioned before, and I live in the NYC media area. I don't think it is any of our business, but I am not happy with having to secure two living quarters simultaneously (a topic for discussion on another thread).

I thought is would wait the weekend before I noted, there has been zero mention of this topic on my Facebook feed. Of course I have hidden every far right "news" source and most of those who post from those feeds. Makes ya wonder just who is putting out this info

It wasn't in my Facebook feed, but it was in the column on the right side that lists trending topics. And this was days before it was posted here. I'm sure it wouldn't appear in any far right "news" sources - for obvious reasons.

Interesting times in the US, a person shows interest in the well being of a child and gets slammed for being mean and it being reprehensible to even bring it up, yet a Presidential candidate verbally attacks and physically mocks a NY Times reported who is physically challenged and at various instances critiques the size and physical appearance--fat shaming, of women...he becomes Pres-elect. Don't even get me started on the mocking of a POW.

Go figure?

"Rosie's a loser. A
real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat
little Rosie."

-Donald Trump 12/2006

Jim, I think most of us who believe the public speculation about a child's development is inappropriate (via Twitter? Give me a break) also have very strong feelings about Trump's inexcusable comments and behavior. I'm not sure why you seem to be drawing some sort of analogy between the two. They're both very different, but both very wrong.

Trump & Rosie slung mud at each other for a long time. Like poorly behaved children. Making a utube and comments about a child hit a new level of low!

Just one thing ~ Rosie did not make the YouTube. She tweeted it.

The actual author of the video (after being contacted by Trump attorneys ) will pull the video within 24 hrs.

Agree with those who say this is a private family matter and none of the public's business. However it has puzzled me that Barron was situated immediately next to Trump and the camera at the victory celebration--I would have assumed the Trump team would have placed Ivanka who is photogenic, polished and represents a very modern working woman/wife/executive figure, next to her father. That poor child was clearly in distress, whether due to being tired or an underlying problem, and it seemed very odd to have pushed him so squarely into the camera range at 3 am.

Maybe they just didn't have the lineup planned out well because they were caught off guard by needing to make a victory speech, lol.

Oh blah - the 'kids should be off limits' is invariably, transparently, trotted out as an attempt to shut down/marginalise a topic. There's no law that says people are only allowed to discuss 'appropriate' subjects pertaining to government leaders --- yet.

It's 1 thing to criticise &/or insult offspring, & another to want to discuss an issue in a neutral way.

IMPO, if there were truly a disability going on w/ their kid, a true narcissist would be likely to view it as a reflection of themself & refuse to admit or acknowledge it, so it's likely a moot point. Additionally, Mr. Trump has never been a champion for any social cause, AFAIK.

Carol, to your point it is interesting that Trump has not responded to any of this re. his son, particularly since given his penchant for ferociously fighting back at any perceived insult or criticism one might think he would be quick to jump on this. I googled the topic after reading about it here and also interestingly several sources mentioned that Melania Trump-not Donald Trump-is threatening to sue over allegations of autism. Sometimes it's what isn't said that can be as or more revealing than what is.

Here's my completely baseless gossip fueled thought: wonder what the family dynamics are really like in the Trump clan? The three oldest children have been fairly vocal about how deeply upsetting the divorce between their parents was. The 'middle' daughter was the product of a brief marriage which began as a highly publicized extramarital affair and was raised by most accounts primarily by her mother post-divorce. And then there is the 3rd wife who has a somewhat hazy background, a past as a racy lingerie model and who has produced a child who may or may not have some type of developmental issues but who is indisputably part of a family dynamic that is complicated to say the least.

Would have given a lot of have a secret camera attached to the Mar-a-Lago gravy boat at this Thanksgiving holiday gathering LOL.

Well, we really are not supposed to spread unkind rumors about anyone. Of course... pot, meet kettle.

That said, a child is more vulnerable than an adult and that is why they are off limits. Period.

In re the victory speech, I found it odd that he was flanked on one side by Pence, on the other by his 10yo. As if they had equal standing. It was just something I noticed. I did not listen to the speech only saw the image, and I thought it looked strange, almost like the kid was next in line. OTOH it was probably random.

If you do a search, you will find that Donald Trump, Jr, and his wife, have done at least one interview and fundraiser for autism awareness. IMO, with the hateful history between Trump, Sr, and Rosie O'Donnell, she would have done better to have left the subject alone. I have no love, or respect, for Donald Trump, but the child should not be used as a means to irritate the father.

A couple of theories on the minor Trump's placement on camera:

1) He is young, and by association might make his 70 year old father seem younger and more dynamic.

2) That should have been Melania's position, but she might not have had time to come to terms with her husband's unexpected win, and putting the child between herself and her husband, or between herself and the spotlight, might have been a subconscious attempt to distance herself.

In either case, if Ivanka had been given the place next to her father, there would have been a bigger hue and cry, coupled with the pre-election rumors of his inappropriateness toward her.

There you have my armchair analysis and my 2 cents, which is what it's worth.

Mama, I thought it was more appropriate to have Melania there too, but she often hasn't appeared the way most PE wives do. Again, it might all mean nothing at all.

I agree that the positioning of the family seemed random.