When 11-year-old Barron Trump saw an image of his father’s severed head on television, he thought something terrible had happened.
The image – part of a photoshoot comedian Kathy Griffin did with photographer Tyler Shields – was posted on her Twitter account and shows the bloodied face of the US President (the image can be seen here).
The 56-year-old captioned the gruesome image, “There was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his … wherever,” referencing Trump’s comments about journalist Megyn Kelly in 2015.
According to TMZ, the youngest son of Donald Trump screamed for his mother when he saw the image on the screen.
"He's 11. He doesn't know who Kathy Griffin is and the head she was holding resembled his dad," a source told the site.
First Lady Melania Trump said she found the photo "very disturbing".
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"As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing," she said in a statement.
"When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong.
"[It] makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it."
The President also tweeted a response to the stunt, admitting his son was having a "hard time" dealing with it.
He labelled the comedian "sick".
Griffin has since deleted the image from her social media profiles and issued an apology, admitting that she went "too far".
"I sincerely apologise. I am just now seeing the reaction of these images. The image is too disturbing, I understand how it offends people," she said in a video posted on Twitter.
"I've made a lot of mistakes in my career. I will continue. Taking down the image, gonna ask the photographer to take down the image.
"I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far, I made a mistake and I was wrong."
As soon as Griffin posted the original image, famous faces from both sides of the political fence tweeted their disapproval.
The US Secret Service even sent a tweet alluding to the controversy, writing, "Threats made against @SecretService protectees receive the highest priority of all of our investigations."
Top Comments
I am sure the Obama daughters were very upset too by the continuing questioning about their father's country of birth, the cartoons, mems etc of their father with a noose around his neck and so on. Having said that what Kathy G did is out of line and not funny but then again when was she last funny???
While I disagree with this "stunt" and do understand it would have caused distress for his son, I have to wonder if Donald Trump sees the irony in his statement, given the amount of distress some of his policy decisions would have resulted in for many many children and their families.
I don't think his policies involved anyone getting their heads chopped off.
Yes and given that during the Obama years, right wing conservatives used Obama look alike dolls, placed a noose around the neck and hung them from trees. Not near the outrage about that. Or that during the recent presidential race Trump encouraged people to use their "2nd amendment rights" against Hillary when they got the chance and held up signs at rallies with Hillary's face on a shooting target. Again not near the outrage. I think its dangerous when politicians starts censoring comdeians no matter how distasteful. Why is Kathy held to a higher standard than the president himself? Does Trump realise how many little girls were "traumatised" by his "grab them by their pussy" comment? Trump is simply a reflection of an American culture that's been sick for a really long time.
No, just groped, assaulted and even shot....