Teen Trump: How 18-year-old Barron could follow in his father’s footsteps
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He is a teenager who is getting ready for his high school graduation next week. But Barron Trump is now coming to understand just how fascinating he is to the world outside Oxbridge Academy, his elite Florida college.
This week it was suggested that Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron, has been chosen to serve as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention, which would have made the 8-year-old one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida who are set to officially nominate his father as the GOP’s presidential candidate in July.
The convention will be something of a family affair, as other delegates include Barron’s half-siblings, Donald Trump Jr, 46, Eric, 40, and Tiffany, 30. Ivanka, 42 – Donald’s “favourite child” according to the 2022 documentary Unprecedented – has reportedly left politics and will not attend.
Then, just a few days later, the office of his mother Melania sent out a statement saying that “While Barron is honoured to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.” But by then, hundreds of news articles had been written and posted to the internet, bringing him into the spotlight like never before.
It’s the first time that Barron, who was largely shielded from the media while he was growing up, has been associated with the public arena. In fact, so little is known about the member of the Trump clan who they call “Little Donald”, that when an eight-second video surfaced this week of him speaking at a dinner, social media went wild.
Many commented that his accent was similar to his brothers’, and that with his gangly 6’ 7” frame, he also looked and sounded remarkably like Cousin Greg from Succession.
“Barron is such an intriguing and interesting figure,” says Sara Nathan, Editor at Large of the New York Post. “He’s super close to his mother and also his grandmother who recently died. He was always kept firmly under wraps but at Christmas he appeared in a family photo which was seen as very significant.
“Now he’s about to graduate and has come of age and the world is watching to see whether he will follow in the family business and whether the convention will be his first steps into a political career.”
Although he may have kept a low profile while his Dad was in the White House, baby Barron William Trump was just two months’ old when his parents showed him off on TV for The Oprah Show. “See the little delicate hands,” said the real estate tycoon, who would later be mocked for the size of his own.
Ellen Degeneres sent Barron a gold pushchair, complete with a mini gold chandelier which Melania described as “fun”.
Young Barron grew up with an entire floor of their $100 million penthouse in Trump Tower to himself, and there were reports that at night, Melania would slather his skin in her own-brand caviar moisturiser. At five, he is said to have announced he wanted to become a businessman like his dad.
“He is very strong-minded… he is independent and opinionated and knows exactly what he wants,” said Melania. “He likes to dress up in a suit and tie sometimes like daddy.”
The youngest of Trump’s five children was educated at some of the most expensive private schools in New York, Maryland and Florida, including Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School on the Upper West Side, where his mother would take him to and from school in a chauffeured SUV. He speaks fluent Slovenian (like his mother) and reportedly gets on best with his half-sister Tiffany who is closest to him in age, but still 12 years older.
Melania famously insisted on staying in New York with Barron for the first five months’ of Trump’s presidency, and when they eventually moved to Washington, Barron, then 11, became the first boy to grow up in the White House since JFK Jr. in 1963.
His mother was said to be fiercely protective of him, and he was rarely photographed, yet Trump’s young son was still the subject of criticism.
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell had to apologise after making claims that Barron had autism and Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich was suspended after tweeting “Barron will be this country’s first homeschool shooter”.
In March, Mike Sington, the former NBC executive, said Barron turning 18 meant he was now “fair game” for the media, but former first child Chelsea Clinton sprang to the teenager’s defence. “I think he’s a private citizen,” she told The View talk show. “I feel so strongly that if you are a private citizen, you have an unimpeachable right to privacy, and I think the media should leave him alone.”
Despite the scrutiny and privilege, in many respects Barron is just like any other teenage boy. Melania has said that he’s “all into sports” and Trump once joked that with his height he should be a basketball player.
But Barron clearly loves football. In 2017, he joined the Under-12 Division of DC United where he played midfielder and he was pictured wearing an Arsenal kit while having a kickabout on the White House lawn.
Some suspect the influence of Thierry Henry, who met Donald at a book launch in 2013, or Piers Morgan, a Gunners fan who befriended Trump after appearing on The Celebrity Apprentice. It’s thought that a football-mad Barron prompted his father to invite Wayne Rooney and family to the White House for a Christmas party in 2018.
Barron’s other passions are said to include trainers – he has an impressive “sneaker” collection – and computers. Donald once jokingly bragged about Barron’s ability to break into his laptop and said “He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable”. Unlike the rest of his family, Barron doesn’t appear to have any public social media profiles yet.
Although with his quiff and pout, Barron looks remarkably similar to a young Donald, according to insiders his temperament is very different. “I cannot stress enough how kind and polite Barron is… he’s just a great kid,” Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary says, adding that she saw a “definite difference” between Barron and his half-siblings. “Just very, very kind and humble and empathetic and smart.”
His best friend is reportedly Bo Loudon, the son of American TV personality Dr Gina Loudon and former Missouri state senator, John William Loudon. The two teenagers have been described as “full of energy and keen to make their mark in the world.”
The actor Vincent Oshana recently went to a dinner party at Barron’s Mar-a-Lago home and called him “witty, smart, hilarious” on a podcast in April and said he has “a good head on his shoulders” and is “smart on politics”. According to Oshana, Barron revealed to him over dinner: “I’ll be in my room and the house is shaking, like, my dad plays the music loud.”
Iranian-American business mogul Patrick Bet-David was at the same dinner and said: “For an hour and a half we just watched Barron run dinner with stories, entertainment. Oh my God. Everything.” He described his young host as “sharp, funny, sarcastic, tough – not weak.”
In a clip posted to TikTok, Bet-David, 45, praised Barron’s good manners and humility, calling him a “freaking stud of a kid.” According to Bet-David, Barron told him: ‘It’s officially fair game to come after me. I don’t care. Good, do it. They’ve gone and done it to every kid.’
Barron is certainly not afraid to give his father feedback. Mollie Hemingway revealed in her book Rigged that a 14-year-old Barron didn’t like the way his father conducted himself in the debates with Joe Biden in 2020. “People thought I was too belligerent,” said Donald. “I will say my own son Barron said, ‘Dad you were too tough. You didn’t have to keep interrupting him’.”
Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House, claimed in 2019 that Trump – who is 6ft 3” – resented his son for becoming taller than him. “His son is effectively not at all part of his life,” said Wolff.
Indeed, this week, Trump appeared to not know how old his son was, when he reacted to the news that Barron was part of the delegation by saying: “Well, to me that’s very cute because it’s a very young guy and he’s graduating from high school this year. He’s 17, but, if they can do that, I’m all for it.”
Questions about Melania and Donald’s marriage have been swirling for years and there were unsubstantiated rumours that the former First Lady re-negotiated her pre-nup before moving to The White House, to ensure that Barron‘s inheritance was secure. The rumours were all denied by Melania’s office.
According to a source, a big cause of disagreement between them was often their son, as Melania wanted to keep Barron out of politics but Donald wanted to get him involved in public life as soon as possible.
This autumn, the teenager will decide where to go to college. His father, sisters and his brother, Donald Jr, all studied at the University of Pennsylvania. But New York-born Barron is reportedly considering returning to his hometown, and wants to study at NYU. Wherever he goes, sources say Melania is likely to follow him.
And should Dad get elected in November, it’s not inconceivable that Barron could have a role in the White House as an adviser, like Ivanka before him. Either way, “Little Donald” will no doubt stay close to the nexus of power and might well turn out to be the most ruthless of them all. Just look at Cousin Greg.
