US actor Peter Fonda has apologised for what he says was a "vulgar" tweet that attacked the Trump administration over the family separation immigration policy.
First Lady Melania Trump's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed that the Secret Service had been contacted about Fonda's tweet that mentioned her and Donald Trump's 12-year-old Barron.
"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, who is the son of Henry Fonda and younger brother of Jane Fonda, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Like many Americans, I am very impassioned and distraught over the situation with children separated at the border, but I went way too far. It was wrong and I should not have done it. I immediately regretted it sincerely apologise to the family for what I said and any hurt my words have caused."
In all caps, Fonda tweeted that "We should rip Barron Trump from his mother's arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles and see if his mother will stand up against the giant ass--- she is married to." He then deleted it.
Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that ends the family separation policy, reversing a position he took earlier in the week that stopping the practice would take congressional action. Outrage over the policy grew over the weekend and in recent days, and even some Republicans called for the White House to end it.
Donald Trump Jr. condemned the remarks, and wrote, on Twitter, "As an FYI @SonyPictures has a movie with him dropping in a few days. I wonder if they will apply the same rules to @iamfonda that they did to @therealroseanne. I have a strange suspicion that they wont do anything. Please RT, we deserve an answer!"
The movie is "Boundaries," and Sony Pictures Classics said that it has no plans to pull the movie.
Australian Associated Press
