Conservative American commentator Ann Coulter has urged US President Donald Trump not to fall for “actor children”, saying kids being separated after crossing the US-Mexico border were staging their tears.
“These child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now - do not fall for it, Mr President," Coulter said in an interview with Fox News, addressing President Trump.
"I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV,” she added.
Coulter then cited an unknown New Yorker article to qualify her claim.
“They describe how these kids are being coached - they’re being given scripts to read by the Liberals,” she continued.
“Don’t fall for the actor children.”
It’s unclear which article Coulter was referring to but on her Twitter account, she refers to a 2011 piece about the experiences of some migrants seeking asylum in the US.
The article follows a Central African woman named “Caroline” who had been allegedly encouraged to exaggerate her asylum claim by saying she was a rape victim.
But the author of the piece responded to Coulter’s claim, suggesting his story was more nuanced and complicated than the summary provided by the commentator.
“Dear @AnnCoulter, may I suggest our excellent ESL classes at NYU, since you clearly are incapable of comprehending my @NewYorker piece, which has NO child actors, and NO liberals reading scripts to them. If you're unable to read, you can listen,” journalist Suketu Mehta tweeted.
The policy, in which children are separated from their parents as they’re taken into custody at the border, is generating huge debate in the US.
Coulter isn’t the only conservative commentator to make such claims.
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh also claimed the saga was a “manufactured crisis” and was a distraction from other issues.
“And so made-to-order, this manufactured crisis, somehow that Donald Trump is heartless, that Republicans are heartless, that they want to bust up families. Let me tell you who’s been busting up families. The Democrats,” he said.
“This is a manufactured crisis in the sense that nothing’s new here. This policy has been in place for years and was widely practised during the Obama administration.”
