Trump Drops Biggest Clue Yet He Has No Idea What's Going On In Barron's Life
Even though Barron Trump's graduation brought Donald Trump and Melania Trump together to celebrate the occasion, it was short lived. Donald was granted the day off from his hush money trial to attend his youngest son's graduation on May 17, 2024, but he bolted to Minnesota to attend a Republican fundraiser that same day. A couple weeks after Barron's graduation, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate still did not seem to have a strong grasp on his son's future. "You know, he's very sought after. He's a very smart guy. Very tall guy," Donald said about Barron while appearing on "Fox & Friends Weekend" on June 2. The former president said his son "gets into everywhere" he applied. But with Barron's graduation in the rearview, and the deadline for choosing a college fast-approaching, Donald still had no clue where his son was leaning towards attending. "And then you see all of these colleges are rioting and maybe you want to go to a different kind of a college," Donald said on "Fox & Friends."
Donald used a similar talking point when speaking about Barron's college plans a month earlier. "And you know, a lot of, a lot of these choices of colleges are changing because you see what's going on in the last month," Donald said during a May 10 interview with "Kayal and Company" (via the New York Post) while offering no real insight into his son's college plans. Although, one piece of info Donald Trump gets right about Barron is his height, but remembering his son's age is a different story.
Donald Trump forgot Barron turned 18
There have been other signs that Donald Trump is disconnected from the life of his son. While bragging about his son, Donald Trump once botched Barron's age during an interview. "He's a very young guy, and he's graduated from high school this year. He's pretty young, I will say. He's 17," the one-time president told Noticias Telemundo on May 9, 2024. (Barron was 18 at the time.) Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Donald, displayed hostility when asked how "The Art of the Deal" author could forget his son's age. "NBC has chosen to engage in tabloid journalism fit for the checkout aisle of a grocery store," Steven Cheung told NBC News when asked for comment. Momentarily forgetting a child's age may not seem to be a big deal, but Barron famously turned 18-years-old not long before that interview in March. It was especially memorable because former NBC executive Mike Sington wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "He's fair game now." The tweet was later deleted, per Newsweek.
Rumors have circulated for years that Donald does not have a close relationship with the only child he shares with Melania Trump. "His son is effectively not at all a part of his life," journalist Michael Wolff said on "The Last Word with Laurence O'Donnell" in 2019 (via the Daily Mail). A similar report was published in January 2024 after Melania's mother, Amalija Knavs, died. "There have been times when Barron has been with his grandparents more than with Melania, and a lot more than with Donald," a source told People in January.