What We Know About Barron And Donald Trump Jr.'s Relationship

Former president Donald Trump has understandably been the subject of much public scrutiny over the past seven years, and as a result, many are quite familiar with the relationships that he has with his five children. However, followers of the former president may be less familiar with the relationship each of his children has with each other, especially that between Trump's eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., and his youngest, the teenaged Barron Trump, who has more or less stayed out of the spotlight since his father ascended to the White House in 2016. 

So what do we know about the relationship between the former president's eldest and youngest sons? Well, followers of 45 may be unsurprised to learn that the two of them do have similarities; most notably, they grew up without their father as a huge presence in their lives. However, as the years went on, it became clear that the two children have gone on to lead very different lives. 

Despite sharing a father, Barron Trump and Donald Trump Jr. were arguably born worlds apart. Donald Jr. was born in 1977 to Ivana and Donald Trump, the first of three siblings, whilst Barron was born over 28 years later, in 2006, to their father's third wife, Melania Trump. Both also have at least one thing in common: each of their mothers have attested that their respective children were each primarily raised by them, with Donald himself taking a less-than-active role.

In 2016, Ivana attested that she raised their three children "single-handedly," while Melania said in a 2010 interview with Larry King that Barron spent "most of the time with me" (hence the Slovenian accent which the then-4-year-old took from his mother). 

Naturally, then, given his father's notorious lack of involvement in his children's lives, it is safe to assume that Barron did not spend much time with his elder half-siblings as he was growing up. However, there have been a few instances when Barron and Don Jr. have been seen interacting. Their bond was first witnessed by the public in 2016, when the two half-brothers were seen fist-bumping one another at the RNC in Cleveland. Unsurprisingly, Barron's mother Melania sat between them. Naturally, it is safe to assume that the two brothers at least have a relationship, even if it may not be as strong as other bonds between brothers. 

Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump are arguably polar opposites when it comes to their places on their father's campaign trail. Since the beginning, Donald Trump's eldest child happily stumped for him all across the country in both of his presidential runs. Barron, on the other hand, has understandably chosen to stay out of the limelight. However, that has not prevented his elder half-brother, widely known for his loud mouth, from invoking Barron's name for political advantage.

Donald Jr.'s most vocal defense of his little brother may have been in 2018, when he got in a feud with the actor Peter Fonda. Fonda controversially tweeted in June of that year (via The New York Times) that the then-12-year-old Barron should be "[ripped] from his mother's arms and put [in] a cage with pedophiles," in response to the then-president's controversial family separation policy. Though Fonda soon apologized and deleted the tweet, that did not stop Donald Jr. from railing against the actor on Twitter, calling him a "sick individual," a "bully and a coward," and suggested that he "pick on someone a bit bigger," hinting that he may have wanted to fight Fonda. Though Fonda never responded to the tweets, this would not be the last time Donald Jr. would bring up his brother's name in public. 

In December 2019, perhaps in response to the controversial tweet by Peter Fonda — who had since died — Donald Trump Jr. made an appearance at a Turning Point USA event, in which, during a rant against Hunter Biden, he said, "If 13-year-old Barron Trump is not off limits, Hunter Biden sure as s*** is not off limits!"

On a July 9, 2020 radio appearance with right-wing radio talk show host Kurt Schlichter on "The Hugh Hewitt Show," Donald Jr. reported that he heard rumblings from "liberal circles" in New York that "big donors" of Joe Biden, then a candidate in the 2020 presidential election against his father, were trying to avoid the Democrat debating Donald Trump on national TV. "Because honestly," the then-president's eldest son said, "they know that Joe Biden couldn't debate Barron Trump, let alone Donald Trump."

A few days later, Donald Jr. reiterated this point by re-tweeting an article from the right-wing Daily Caller, which reported that only 54% of voters believed that Joe Biden was "capable" of debating then-President Trump. Donald Jr. wrote in response, "In all fairness, Joe Biden is not capable of debating Barron Trump let alone Donald Trump."