Throughout his childhood, Barron Trump’s fiercely protective mother Melania did all she could to shield her son from the worst excesses of a life in public view.
Such was her success in squirreling him away — even as his father became the most famous man in the world — that very little is actually known about Donald Trump’s youngest child.
Despite towering over his 6’3′ father at 6’9′, Barron cuts an unassuming figure, rarely speaking, smiling shyly as he slips between blacked-out SUVs and the family apartments at New York’s Trump Tower, and – of course – always with mom fixed at his side.
He was just 10 years old when his father was first elected president in 2016 and when Melania, despite all her perceived coldness, insisted on personally preparing his breakfast and lunch each day.
That image of a nervous ‘mummy’s boy’ was all but shattered on Tuesday night. At a raucous Trump rally in Miami, family home-territory amid MAGA hats and flags aplenty, Barron – who turned 18 in March – was officially inducted into his father’s world.
‘Welcome to the scene, Barron,’ Trump boomed, gesturing to his son, who stood up from his front-row seat and waved to the adoring crowd. ‘He has had such a nice easy life, now it’s a little bit changed.’
Melania, meanwhile, was hundreds of miles away in New York, busy hosting a Republican fundraiser. Not that Barron appeared to mind, grinning as his father joked: ‘You’re pretty popular!’
But does this jovial summer rally signify something deeper?
Trump insiders have long asserted the former president hopes to establish a generational political dynasty to rival the Kennedys and the Clintons.
Could Barron’s coming of age be the moment Donald’s been waiting for?
‘[Trump] wants his last name to reverberate through the halls of power in Washington long after he exits,’ Thomas Gift, head of the Centre on US Politics at University College London, tells DailyMail.com. ‘If Trump wins in 2024, you can bet he’ll want a large role in anointing his likely successor, preferably someone who’s part of his family tree.’
During Trump’s presidency, rumors swirled that his eldest daughter Ivanka, now 42, was the clear favorite to carry on the mantle.
Certainly it made sense. Ivanka was among the top aides in his administration, serving her father alongside her husband Jared Kushner.
But when she stepped back from politics in 2022, saying ‘while I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena’, she left a gap in the line of succession.
Trump’s other two sons, Eric, 40, and Donald Jr, 46, have both been active in politics for a while now.
Don Jr in particular has emerged as something of a consigliere to his father in the post-presidency years — notably attending all of Trump’s seven-week Manhattan trail over hush-money payments this spring.
But whether he or Eric have the charisma and — critics may snipe — the intelligence to continue Trump’s legacy is somewhat uncertain.
‘The problem is, there’s still only one Donald Trump. He’s a uniquely iconoclastic figure who can’t easily be replaced, even by his own kin,’ Gift says.
At Tuesday’s Miami rally, Trump even appeared to joke about the issue. Barron is now ‘more popular’ than Don Jr and Eric, he teased, adding: ‘We got to talk about that.’
But is Barron open to the conversation?
Since turning 18 and graduating from the exclusive Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, gossip has abounded about his ambitions for the future.
It is not yet known where he will attend college — though Trump indicated Tuesday that his son had now ‘decided’.
Possibilities are said to include New York University, Georgetown (Eric’s alma mater) and the University of Pennsylvania, where both his father and Don Jr study economics.
But while Barron’s own choice of subject and career goals haven’t been publicly confirmed, a move into the world of politics seems increasingly likely.
‘He’s far more politically interested than people realize,’ an insider told the Mail in May.
‘I see all the attributes of a future President if he has the appetite for it. And why not? He has the Trump genes.’
MAGA fans are certainly buying into the Barron accession narrative, even starting to refer to him as ‘Emperor Barron Trump’ online.
One fan, Ben Berry, shared a video on X of himself stopping Trump at Mar-A-Lago earlier this year and asking: ‘You have a fantastic family, in particular Barron’s popularity is growing. What hopes and aspirations do you have for your son?’
‘They say that Barron is getting very popular. Barron, ladies and gentlemen, Barron Trump is getting very popular,’ Trump replied.
Even the Republican bigwigs appear keen to get Barron on board, announcing in May that he’d been selected as a Florida delegate for next week’s summer party convention.
Melania ‘regretfully declined’ the invitation on his behalf, saying he was ‘honored’ to be asked but had ‘prior commitments’.
Barron has long been used to his mother’s indomitably maternal spirit.
She broke with tradition when Trump was elected, initially choosing to stay in New York and keep Barron with her, insisting he finish his school year in the city instead of transferring to DC’s Sidwell Friends school where the Clintons, Bushes and Obamas all sent their children.
‘While he was still a minor she zealously protected him and we knew very little about the details of his daily life,’ a family source told DailyMail.com.
‘I think he’s allowed to make more decisions for himself now [that he’s 18]. He can invite anyone to dinner he wishes. He’s slowly becoming more public.’
Last week, as news reverberated about President Biden’s disastrous performance at CNN’s debate face-off with Trump, footage emerged of Donald sat with Barron by his side in a golf cart.
In the recording, Trump can be heard cruelly joking with employees that Biden is an ‘old broken down pile of crap’ and will be ‘quitting the race’, before turning his ire on Vice President Kamala Harris and saying: ‘She’s so f***ing bad.’
Astute political watchers were quick to point out that — while he remained silent — Barron was noticeably nodding along as his father spoke.
Melania’s former White House chief of staff Stephanie Grisham told DailyMail.com this week that she wasn’t surprised by this.
‘Now he’s 18 he can make more of his decisions,’ she said, adding that it is ‘very possible’ Barron will choose a career in politics.
‘He’s statesmanlike. It’s almost like royalty.’
Whatever happens, Grisham insisted that Barron would always have his mother to rely on.
‘Melania would support whatever decision he made, she would be there to give advice, no matter what her thoughts were privately,’ she said.
So, with the support of his father, the Republican party and now even his mother’s blessing, it raises the question: Have we just been introduced to the new face of the Trump dynasty?