Barron Trump is now 18 and thus can be discussed somewhat without that terrible pit in one’s stomach, though – again, we’re going to tread lightly because 18 is not 38 and it isn’t like he’s done a lot to get much attention, indeed – the latest news is related to the fact that Barron does a little “too little” to be of much use or news to anyone. That’s a bit odd for the lanky young man, who is deliciously taller than his dad, which you know just drives Trump insane – that’s one for the kid right there. Then there is the fact that young Barron chose to go to famously liberal Greenwich Village hip New York University, perhaps the campus with the least amount of tolerance of the Trump administration, which is just wonderful and one wonders… And he’s made news of late in somehow playing a role in getting the NYU College Republican president fired after she called Barron Trump an “oddity on campus” which – given the above, is about as obvious a statement as could be made, and yet fired she got, so much for free speech. It did involve Trump, there is no free speech involving the Trumps.
So let’s review the article from The New York Times:
The New York University chapter president of the College Republicans resigned this week, yielding to pressure from the national organization after she was prominently quoted in a “Vanity Fair” profile saying that Barron Trump, President Trump’s youngest son, was “sort of like an oddity on campus.”
Again, this is pretty bland stuff all things considered.
In the profile, published on Feb. 12, Kaya Walker, the chapter’s president, suggested that the president’s son, an 18-year-old freshman at N.Y.U., did not appear to be assimilating into campus life and was reclusive. “He goes to class, he goes home,” she told the magazine.
For a young woman college Republican (One named “Kaya”) this is really really buttoned down stuff and couldn’t possibly get someone in trouble, could it? After all, it is very likely that the kid goes to class in the Village, takes the train (Or car, given the Secret Service detail) and goes back to mid-town Manhattan and 5th Avenue to the condo in Trump Tower – man, could this guy ever throw the wild college party, right?) and gets back home. It isn’t like he’s set down a deep track in this world to this point. At least, we don’t know of it. And yet, for all the moderation of the quote, Kaya is gone:
Will Donahue, the president of the College Republicans of America, said in a statement on Tuesday that Ms. Walker had not obtained prior authorization from the national organization before speaking to “Vanity Fair.” Chapter presidents, he said, must get clearance before “engaging with media outlets known for editorial biases against conservative voices.”
Oh, get bent! I am pretty tired of the victimization bullshit. If Vanity Fair is a “bias against conservative voices,” then perhaps the conservatives need to look at what they’re voicing, or stop complaining that a media outlet like Vanity Fair chooses to go against them. But it’s not like they were fire breathing anti-conservatives in this column. They actually acted pretty respectfully in my opinion, just as I try to be whenever Barron comes up.
President of NYU College Republicans forced to resign after calling Barron Trump “an oddity on campus.”
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-02-17T22:12:10.320Z
Speaking of which, it is time for my annual “Let’s give Barron a break” column. I choose to love this kid until I hear something from him that turns me off. This is the boy who grew up as part of his junior high – early high school in the White House, the worst time in many boys’ lives, and he wasn’t even a normal White House kid. When his dad was going to all those Super Bowls and rocket launches, did we once see him bringing his son from the White House? NO! Not one single time. Imagine a teen boy having a chance to go to a game, or see a rocket launch with his dad… Not. One. Time. And yes, that might well have been mom trying to keep him off the cameras, that just makes it worse in my opinion. It’s not like anyone ever stopped Trump anyway, if he wanted to take his son to a game, no one was going to stop him, not even Mel.
But it doesn’t even end there. Where were the half-brothers? We have Don Jr. and Eric who are supposed to know the pitfalls of growing up as Donald Trump’s kids. These two are all over the place hunting, fishing, and camping. Where was the picture of Don Jr. taking Barron fishing with him? It didn’t exist. Never saw it. And we should have seen something even if the kid was wholly protected. Believe me, I would’ve seen something somewhere.
So I choose to take Barron’s side in everything until someone shows me why he’s a major dick, too. For now, though, I see a kid who – faced with choices for college, chose the nation’s most elite private liberal university (Way more liberal than the Ivy League), and one close to home, so he could stay under the radar. So how MAGA is this kid? He chose NYU for God’s sake! Is that a sign? Is he maybe trolling family a bit? I am going to take it as a sign that the kid doesn’t live his life with political radar as his first and only incoming information.
So that’s that. Barron is an oddity. He is Donald Trump’s son – odd enough. He chose NYU – odd enough. He’s been wholly quiet, which – not all that odd, but keep it up. And I’ll have his back right up until I see something that shows me he’s an issue like all of them. For now, I kinda like the kid’s style. He’s working it a bit differently, not quite on script. Definitely keep that sh*t up and see what happens. It would be a major boss move to straddle both MAGA and the left… let’s see what happens.
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter – X at @JasonMiciak, and please follow me now on Bluesky.
“Where were the uncles?”
Um, who are these “uncles?” You mention Don Jr and Eric in the next sentence–they’re his HALF-BROTHERS.
Other than that, yeah. You just gotta love these folks who are all about “free speech” until the speech is something that they don’t like or they disagree with. You have to wonder, from the Young Republicons fuehrer’s comment, if the NYU girl had said THE EXACT SAME THING about Barron in an interview with Fox “News” or some other right-wing propaganda agent, if she’d still have been forced to resign? Her comment CLEARLY had context (and you damn well know if a progressive group had taken the “Barron’s an oddity” out of that context, the right-wing propagandists would be all over it as “taken out of context”) which was fundamentally NOT negative. Barron does NOT seem to be doing the *typical* college experience (I’m willing to bet most of the “Young Republicans” do their fair share of partying and engaging in some kind of “fun” on campus rather than just going to class and going home or their dorm rooms). He certainly isn’t out there making headlines for killing endangered species in Italy or going a little wild on Spring Break (like Dubya’s daughters were caught doing).
Corrected Joseph 🙂
True on the half brother point. Still, they should be uncles in every real sense, no one should sympathize more with what Barron might be going through than them, and if either of them had a heart, you would think that they’d find a way to half-adopt the kid and get him out with them. I certainly would want to. Just take the kid to Alaska to go fishing for god’s sake, you’re rich, do something that a teen boy would love. I want to see a picture of him smiling warmly. Just one. Probably find it the moment I find one of his mother smiling sincerely without the slightest bit of reservation or attitude.
jason
Absolutely…. thanks for gentle column on BARRON …
I’m with you. Barron has been shielded from so much that he needs time and space to get his sh*t together. If he does something awful, my opinion may change. Meanwhile, I hope he can find a good place in the world and live a decent life.
🤨 I couldn’t be happier that Kaya Walker ran a afoul of her own organization. Republicans eating each other’s faces serves my “end of the Republican movement” purposes just fine.
There are some odd stories out there about Barron, most based on some level of hearsay, but they are not political viewpoints. Stories of him possibly being somewhere on the autism spectrum and his cruelty, alone and with his few friends, to small animals may have shown up because he is so quiet and private. Even if any of them are true, I’m willing to chalk them up to a young man emerging from an incredibly dysfunctional upbringing and he may prove to be just a quiet, decent human being.
The part of this story that worries me most is the statement of Will Donahue, President of College Republicams of America. “Barron Trump represents the future of the conservative movement…” That could prove to be much more damaging to Barron Trump’s psyche than Walker describing him as an “oddity.” Oh great! Barron has been a political prop for his parents and now Donahue wants to use him as a prop for the future! It is Donahue that is opening the door for intense, undeserved political scrutiny of this quiet guy! If you are trying to push a narrative that Barron is the Prince of the Realm and will someday be King, his privacy is gone forever and he will receive both undeserved praise and undeserved attacks!! 🤬
Within the great scheme of things swirling all around us these “interesting” days, I find myself not giving half a rat’s ass about Barron. If I have a thought about him, it’s a hope that he avoids becoming as awful as all the other Trumps.
I hear you on that. This piece was more about Republican censorship than Barron. I just choose to take up his side occasionally. I am offended his dad never took him to one of those cool events. I wanted that for the kid. But this was more about firing the young woman for saying the most innocuous stuff.
jason