The last time Barron Trump was at the U.S. Capitol for the presidential swearing-in, he was 10 years old. He wore an ill-fitting shirt with a wrinkled collar and looked as if he would rather be anywhere else in the world.
He was barely acknowledged by anyone, least of all his older siblings, who studiously ignored him as they waited with stony faces along with everyone else for their father to arrive and be inaugurated as the 45th president.
His mother Melania then spent eight years doing her utmost to ensure that people continued to ignore her son, while fiercely protecting his privacy to the point that when he turned 18 and it turned out that he was 6 feet tall, this was considered a huge shock came. for almost everyone.
His father's second inauguration Monday provided a salutary lesson in the quirks of fate, as Barron Trump has, seemingly without even trying, eclipsed all his siblings as — literally — the standout star of the Trump family.
And it seems that even if he never asked for this, he is quickly adapting to his new status.
When his father addressed an audience of 20,000 at his post-inauguration rally, he did what he always does these days and invited Barron to stand and introduce himself.
Trump joked, “And then I have a very tall son named Barron. Has anyone ever heard of him?'
Trump Senior turned proudly to the young man sitting behind him, who, with his slicked-back hair and elongated, black-clad body, bore little resemblance to Hollywood's idea of a mafia hit man.
Barron Trump, 18, with his slicked-back hair and elongated, black-clad body, left school only a few weeks ago
Barron stood and acknowledged with surprising indifference what has become the obligatory, wild standing ovation from Trump supporters — far louder and more sustained than that of any other member of the Trump family except his father.
Barely smiling, he languidly performed his father's favorite rally gestures — punching the air, giving the thumbs up, pointing at random people in the crowd and putting his hand to his ear to encourage them to shout louder — as the crowd approved roared. .
They did the same thing every time Barron's face appeared on the giant video screens.
What explains Barron Trump's rock star status in the Make America Great Again world?
His father clearly helps considerably and makes him bigger at every opportunity. On this occasion, he reminded everyone that Barron “knew the youth vote” and had advised him to turn to edgy podcasts, hosted by the likes of outspoken commentator Joe Rogan, and thus help Trump win the support of young male voters. “He understood the market,” Trump said of his son.
And yet it wasn't rocket science to figure out that Trump should target the immensely popular and conservative Rogan, who has more than 14 million listeners – Trump insiders whisper that their boss is rather overvaluing the importance of his youngest child to their election victory. has overestimated.
Some believe Trump continues to praise Barron mainly to please Melania, who, despite whatever faults she may have in the eyes of Democrats, is clearly a devoted mother, and beamed with delight as Barron accepted the applause on Monday.
Others note that, as superficial as it may sound, Trump admits that he likes to surround himself with attractive people and that Barron, who inherited Melania's looks, is better looking than fellow male Trump descendants Donald Junior, 47, and Eric, 41. .
Barron with his father Donald Trump in 2016. Trump admits Baron is much better looking than fellow male Trump offspring Donald Junior, 47, and Eric, 41
Barron as a toddler with his mother Melania who for eight years went out of her way to make sure people ignored her son while fiercely protecting his privacy
He is also, as Trump camp insiders have confirmed, a lot more personable than his siblings. He showed this during the inauguration ceremony when, seemingly alone among them, he made a point of shaking hands with their father's political betes noires Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
He also has a sense of humor, sneaking up behind a group that included his half-sisters Ivanka and Tiffany and sister-in-law Lara Trump to photobomb them just before the inauguration.
Quietly confident, but only on March 19, Barron was given a place of honor next to the rather irritable Elon Musk at the swearing-in ceremony.
During the day he was also seen chatting animatedly with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and, at a congressional lunch, with powerful Republican Senator Tom Cotton and Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for secretary of defense.
Barron's tailor (yes, he already has one) Nathan Pearce, who made him a set of tailor-made suits in the run-up to the inauguration, called him not only “super smart” but also “hilarious” and able to hold his own in a room with top businessmen.
“He can talk to them all day because he's funny, smart and has a dry sense of humor,” he said.
It's easy to forget that Barron only left school a few months ago and is so new to public life that he doesn't have his own Wikipedia page yet.
As a student at New York University, where he is in his first year of business studies and arrives and departs every day surrounded by a swarm of Secret Service bodyguards, there have been no reports of the idiosyncratic, entitled behavior that anyone would expect from a Trump scion.
Barron accompanied his mother Melania at his father's inauguration on Monday at the US Capitol in Washington
“We don't hear anything bad about him, which suggests he's keeping his head down,” a fellow student told The Mail on Sunday. Some young female students reportedly find him attractive, but since he doesn't spend much time on campus, they get little opportunity to talk to him.
“He loves his classes and his professors,” his mother said in a recent interview. “He's doing well, doing well and enjoying being back in New York City.”
His father said of Barron, “He's always been a very good student – he's smart.”
However, Melania also admitted that Barron was aware that he was hardly experiencing the usual student lifestyle. “I don't think it's possible for him to be a normal student,” she said.
He's definitely not a normal student. Despite all the efforts his mother made to raise him away from the maelstrom of the Trump family (they spent much of their time with Melania's Slovenian parents – father Viktor and her late mother Amalija, after they had moved to the US in 2017), Barron is already following in Trump's business footsteps.
A few days ago it was announced that he had started a luxury real estate company with two business-minded young friends last summer. The Trumps have always been single-mindedly focused on making money, but this showed an unusual dedication to the cause, even from a young man who enjoyed dressing in a suit as a child.
Founded in July, just two days after his father was nearly killed by a gunman at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump, Fulcher & Roxburgh Capital was a partnership with a classmate at Barron's £32,000-a-year Palm Beach, Florida, school and with the cousin of a Republican Congressman.
The founders said they wanted to focus on “high-end” projects, including golf courses and expensive properties in Utah, Arizona and Idaho. However, the company was only dissolved four months later in November.
Cameron Roxburgh, Barron's business partner, told Newsweek that they shut down the venture to avoid media attention when Trump was re-elected president – but added that the venture could potentially be relaunched this spring.
Roxburgh, who went to school with Barron, said the president – who inherited his father Fred's real estate empire in New York – offered his son business advice but no financing, adding that they hoped the venture would eventually be incorporated as a subsidiary of the Trump Organization. .
The company is headquartered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, but is located in the state of Wyoming, which is considered particularly business-friendly thanks to its low taxes and minimal regulations.
According to his father, Barron has also been instrumental in educating him about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, a scandal-ridden industry that Trump previously dismissed as a “scam” but has now controversially embraced.
In September, Trump founded a crypto company called World Liberty Financial, which Barron partially owns and is listed as the company's “DeFi visionary” — a reference to a branch of crypto known as decentralized finance.
If he finds his version of college life somewhat unsatisfying and finds making money much more appealing, Barron might still drop out of college (especially since American degrees last four years).
There is already speculation that Trump – who can no longer rely on the government services of daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner – could persuade him to do just that so he can help him into the White House.
Until now, Melania was seen as a blocker for this. When Barron was selected as a Florida delegate to last summer's Republican National Convention, she “unfortunately” declined on his behalf, citing other commitments.
But as last week's adulation illustrates, many Trumpites, especially those who want to see Trump Senior establish a family dynasty, continue to view Barron as “the future” and live in the hope that he will take the plunge into politics sooner rather than later . .
On social media, Barron-mania has seen him compared to Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar. On eBay you can buy badges with the slogan 'Barron Trump President 2044'.
It might not be long before his father wears one too.
