Actor Peter Fonda apologises for ‘vulgar’ tweet about Barron Trump, a cage and paedophiles

Actor Peter Fonda apologised Wednesday for a late-night Twitter rant in which he suggested 12-year-old Barron Trump should be ripped from “his mother’s arms and put in a cage with paedophiles.”

The all-capitals tweet in the wee hours went on to call US President Donald Trump an expletive. The actor later deleted the tweet and drew sharp rebukes from first lady Melania Trump and Barron’s half-brother, Donald Trump Jnr.

The two-time Oscar nominee, brother of Jane Fonda and son of Hollywood legend Henry Fonda said in a statement hours later that he was upset over children separated from their parents on the US-Mexico border.

“I tweeted something highly inappropriate and vulgar about the president and his family in response to the devastating images I was seeing on television,” Fonda said in the statement, released by both his manager and his publicist. “Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated from their families at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it and sincerely apologise to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused.”

In another tweet, Fonda suggested people opposed to the border policy should track down the addresses of federal agents and “surround their homes in protest,” adding: “We should find out what schools their children go to and surround the schools in protest.”