Ever since former President Donald Trump first ran for office, some of his critics and haters have rhetorically attacked and bullied his youngest son Barron, who is now 18 but was just 10 when his father was first elected.

According to former first lady Melania Trump's new memoir, Barron endured years of bullying and online abuse that she attributes to a false diagnosis of autism in 2016 that was perpetuated by comedic actress Rosie O'Donnell, Newsweek reported.

The ugly incident was ultimately the impetus behind Melania's "Be Best" initiative as the first lady to help reduce and end the bullying of children both online and in real life.

Barron Trump accused of being autistic

The Daily Beast obtained an advance copy of the self-titled "Melania" memoir and revealed how a 2016 tweet from O'Donnell that speculated about Barron being autistic resulted in the young boy being bullied online and in person for years.

In November 2016, a couple of weeks after the election, O'Donnell tweeted, "Barron Trump Autistic? If so -- what an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic."

O'Donnell's supposedly sympathetic tweet linked to a YouTube video that included a few clips of the young boy -- including at the Republican National Convention and on Election Night -- and dissected his various actions to suggest that they were evidence of his having autism.

"She was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband"

"I was appalled by such cruelty," the former first lady wrote of O'Donnell's tweet of the video about her son. "It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism. I felt that she was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband."

"There is nothing shameful about autism (though O’Donnell’s tweet implied that there was), but Barron is not autistic," she continued and went on to accuse the comedic actress, who had a decade-long ongoing feud with her husband at the time, of acting with "sheer malice" toward her son that was "devastating" to her as a parent and "felt like my heart was breaking into pieces."

"Barron’s experience of being bullied both online and in real life following the incident is a clear indication of the irreparable damage caused," Melania added.

Tweet and video deleted, apologies issued

In the days following O'Donnell's tweet about Barron possibly being autistic, TMZ reported that Melania Trump hired a prominent attorney who sent letters threatening lawsuits to both O'Donnell and the individual who created the speculative YouTube video that went viral after the Trump-hating actress and comedian promoted it.

According to TheWrap at that time, the letters succeeded in getting both O'Donnell and the video's creator, James Hunter, to delete their post and video, respectively, and issue public apologies.

For her part, O'Donnell insisted she was just trying to raise awareness about the issue since her own daughter had been diagnosed with autism, while Hunter, who is himself autistic, similarly claimed in a statement that he "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."

Incident led to her "Be Best" anti-bullying initiative

According to Newsweek, Melania Trump wrote in her book that the episode with O'Donnell's tweet about Barron possibly being autistic prompted her "Be Best" campaign as first lady to address the problem of childhood bullying.

However, she admitted to being "taken aback by the resistance I encountered from tech executives" -- including from Amazon, Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and Twitter, among others -- when she spoke to a gathering of them at the White House in 2018 about steps that could be taken to reduce bullying and keep children safe from harm online.