Melania Trump threatens to sue over speculation her son Barron has autism.

Melania Trump, wife of US President elect Donald Trump, has engaged one of America’s top lawyers to shut down public speculation that her 10-year-old son, Barron Trump, is on the autism spectrum.

US comedian Rosie O’Donnell — who engaged in a very public war of words with Donald Trump through the US Presidential campaign and has been feuding with Trump since the 2016 Miss USA contest — tweeted on November 21:

Barron Trump Autistic? if so – what an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic.

O’Donnell included a link to an “anti-bullying” Youtube video (not O’Donnell’s video) with the tweet.

The video analysed Barron’s behaviour – from the way he clapped and the way he walked to the way he reacted when people touched him – on the campaign trail and speculated as to its cause.

O'Donnell was quickly criticised for talking about a 10-year-old child in such a way. She responded with an emotional message about her three-year-old daughter having recently been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.

“When I saw the anti bullying video that mentioned Barron, it spoke to the symptoms many ASD kids have it was educational and informational,” Rosie wrote on her own website.

“These symptoms so many do not understand– I thought – how amazing IF it is true. IF it is true – I tweeted from my heart. It would help so much with the autism epidemic.”

It is believed James Hunter, who made the video and is on the autism spectrum himself, has now been threatened with legal action by Melania Trump's lawyers. He said he is "terrified right now" and has taken the video, which was watched around 1.2 million times, down.

“I truly believed Barron was on the [autism] spectrum, and I wanted people to stop bullying him over his ‘weird’ behavior and explain to them that it might actually be due to a condition,” Hunter wrote on Youtube (the comments have since been deleted) according to Jezebel.

“If this rumor [about the legal threat] turns out to be true, and Ms.Trump really wants this video deleted, I will. I have a great respect for her and her family. I never meant to hurt anyone.”

Melania Trump's attorney, Charles Harder, told TheWrap in a statement earlier this week:

“This law firm represents First Lady-elect Melania Trump and her 10-year-old son, Barron Trump. A video was posted at YouTube recently speculating that Barron might be autistic. He is not.

"The video includes the hashtag 'StopTheBullying' but yet the video itself is bullying by making false statements and speculation about a 10-year-old boy for the purpose of harassing him and his parents. The online bullying of children, including Barron Trump, should end now.”

With the video taken down, Melania is said to be still very upset with Rosie O'Donnell for her original tweet, and the angry First Lady Elect's next move is being widely speculated about.