Every mother’s first instinct is to protect her child. But what if protecting that child became impossible?
Since Donald Trump hit the campaign trail, his family — particularly his wife Melania and their young son Barron Trump — have been under additional scrutiny. And this led to countless times where Barron was a media target and there was nothing his mother could do.
Barron Trump was just 10 years old when his father Donald Trump was sworn in as president. Barron celebrated his 14th birthday on March 20, 2020, and has made headlines for already being taller than his parents! Someday, Barron will be his own man and go forge in his own path. For now, though, these are the most infamous times his mother could not protect him.
Barron Gets Dragged During Trump’s Impeachment
If we’re being honest, “Barron” is kind of a unique name for a child. It’s so unique, in fact, that it came up during impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump!
During those proceedings, Stanford professor Pamela Karlan name-dropped Barron in an attempt to criticize his father. She was discussing the difference between a president and a king and then offered a bit of wordplay: “While the president can name his son Barron, he cannot make him a baron.”
This angered Melania Trump, and she stayed mad even after Karlan apologized. Melania tweeted the following message. “A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”
It wouldn’t take long for these words to haunt both mother and son.
Melania Gets Called Out For Hypocrisy
Donald Trump has long coveted Time Magazine “Man of the Year” status. In fact, many of his clubs featured fake magazines proclaiming Trump Man of the Year until Time Magazine requested the president remove them.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Trump was so angry when Time named teenage activist Greta Thunberg “Person of the Year.” In one of his barely-comprehensible tweets, the president wrote about the award. “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
Critics wasted no time asking why Melania wasn’t calling her husband out. After all, she made such a major spectacle about someone mentioning Barron during impeachment. For that matter, she also runs an anti-bullying “Be Best” campaign.
Eventually, Melania had no choice but to make a halfhearted statement. In it, she claimed that Barron, unlike Greta, is “not an activist” and therefore “deserves privacy.”
Barron Became A Hollywood Punchline
Hollywood has many weird traditions. For example, each year executives compile “The Black List.” This is a list of the best un-produced movie scripts of that year.
In 2019, one of those scripts was about Barron Trump. Titled “Barron: A Tale of Love, Loss & Legacy,” this script by Nicolas Curcio has a wild premise. It’s basically an alternate universe story where Barron Trump sabotages Donald’s election chances because he knows how bad his dad would be for the entire world.
While the movie remains unproduced, this script and its popularity are proof of Melania Trump’s failure to protect her son. It seems Barron will always be a political pawn, no matter how many angry tweets that she writes.
Barron Was The Butt Of A Gun Joke
Speaking of angry tweets, these were enough to land one Saturday Night Live writer in hot water. In fact, Katie Rich got suspended from the show for a single tweet about Barron Trump.
Back in 2017, she tweeted that Barron “would be this country’s first homeschool shooter.” She quickly apologized, but the tweet led to a firestorm of anger. In fact, over 79,000 people demanded she lose her job via an online petition.
Despite the rapid consequences, this incident remains proof that Barron will always get mixed up in the country’s complicated feelings about his father. Furthermore, there’s nothing Melania can really do to stop it.
Barron Thought Kathy Griffin Was A Skilled Assassin
For better or for worse, Donald Trump typically finds a way to make everything about himself. And it seems like Barron may have inherited this trait as well.
In 2017, Kathy Griffin made headlines with a photo of her holding up a mock-severed head of Donald Trump. The image was gory and in poor taste, and Griffin spent about a week getting criticized for posting the image. Soon, though, it became all about Barron.
Donald Trump himself tweeted Griffin “should be ashamed” and that Barron was “having a hard time with this.” This should have made the world sympathetic to Barron. However, TMZ broke the news that when he first saw the image, he thought it was real.
After this, online comedians had a field day making jokes about Barron’s gullibility over the whole thing. Instead of exhibiting the typical digital literacy of an 11-year-old, Barron made the rookie mistake of believing that whatever was on TV must be real.
Barron Got Slammed For His Wardrobe
“Clothes make the man” is wisdom that dates back over 500 years. However, some people learn this wisdom a little later than others, and Barron is proof of that.
Back in 2017, the Daily Caller made a splash with a particular headline. That headline read, “It’s High Time Barron Trump Starts Dressing Like He’s In the White House.” The article basically dragged 11-year-old Barron for wearing things like T-shirts and shorts to so many functions alongside his more-polished parents.
To his credit, he eventually started dressing nicer. But the article was a poignant reminder that young Barron would not ever have the luxury of dressing comfortably. Instead, he is now forced to dress like the world is watching, no matter how much Melania wishes for him to have more privacy.
The Abandoned Son
As family members go, Melania and Barron Trump have enjoyed a close relationship for many years ago. However, the real reason for their special relationship is very bittersweet.
Michael Wolff claims in his book Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump White House that Donald Trump is very distant from both Melania and Barron. According to Wolff, Donald proudly calls Melania a “trophy wife” while actually spending little time with her. And in a fairly telling gaffe, Trump seemed to forget Barron was his son in a 2019 press conference on teen vaping, saying of Melania “she’s got a son” before remembering to add the word “together.”
So, much of the bond that Melania and Barron enjoy may come from the shared trauma of feeling abandoned by Donald Trump.
The Sad Reason Why Melania Does Not Go To Barron’s Baseball Games
In an attempt to give Barron a sense of normalcy, his parents let him play baseball. However, during both practices and games, neither Melania nor Donald are anywhere to be seen.
According to Melania, she keeps her distance because she wants Barron to feel like “one of the boys.” Furthermore, she told ABC News in 2018 wants him to see that “it’s his life, too,” and she doesn’t want to crowd him during these moments.
Melania has seen what the media did to former first kids like Sasha and Malia Obama and Chelsea Clinton. With the media’s attempts to intrude in on and criticize Barron’s private life, it makes sense that Melania would want to let Barron play ball like a normal kid without the added attention having the first lady around would bring.