Barron Trump bowed out of a major public appearance on Monday night when he failed to show up for an interview promoting the family’s new business venture: cryptocurrency.
His father and two brothers appeared on a Spaces discussion on X, the social media site that used to be known as Twitter.
Host Farokh Sarmad, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, noted Barron Trump, 18, didn’t make a planned appearance because ‘we took too long. We’re gonna try and get him back.’
Don Trump Jr. was on at the time and cracked: ‘ Damned teenagers! I’m like the old boomer now – the grumpy old man with a white beard.’
Donald Trump had signed off of the interview at that point. But he had been on the live stream earlier to promote the new family business, World Liberty Financial (WLF), before stepping away to turn it over to his sons.
Don Jr. and Eric joined in but Barron was MIA even though his father credited him with introducing him to the idea.
‘Barron knows so much about this,’ he said. ‘Barron’s a young guy, but he knows – he talks about his [crypto] wallet, he’s got four wallets or something, and I’ll say ‘what is a wallet?’ But he knows it inside out.
The former president struggled to explain his new venture.
‘It’s so important. It’s crypto. It’s AI. It’s so many other things. AI needs tremendous electricity capabilities beyond anything I ever heard,’ he said.
The interview was audio only but took place at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Palm Beach home.
It’s unclear how Barron, who is in his freshman year at NYU’s Stern School of Business, planned to join the conversation.
All of the former president’s sons are involved in the new business a leaked document obtained by the crypto news outlet CoinDesk found. It listed Eric and Don Jr as WLF’s resident ‘Web3 Ambassadors’ and Barron Trump as its ‘DeFi visionary’ (that is, ‘decentralized finance’).
Don Jr. and Eric have been promoting the venture through their own channels. But, despite the hour-long live stream on Monday night, details of it remain murky.
Donald Trump has netted millions of dollars selling items featuring moments from his political life.
He uses the same social media accounts that promote his candidacy for president to promote his business ventures, like $399 golden sneakers, a coffee table book or a bible.
If Trump wins the White House in November, his latest business venture could raise a host of questions about ethics conflicts.
On the campaign trail, Trump has announced his support for policies favorable to digital currencies.
‘We’re embracing the future with crypto, and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,’ Trump wrote on X.
He’s sold pieces of the suit he was wearing during the July 13th assassination attempt on his life. And he reported making $300,000 in royalties from ‘The Greenwood Bible,’ a venture associated with country singer Lee Greenwood.
Trump made about $7.2 million in 2023 through a licensing deal with a company that is selling digital NFT, or non-fungible token, ‘trading cards’ featuring the former president, according to his financial disclosure report.
The former president also has credited his youngest son with introducing him to NFTs.
Barron Trump has backed out of planned appearances on previous occasions.
This summer, he was listed as a delegate to the Republican National Convention for the state of Florida.
Later, his mother Melania Trump said in a statement he would not attend the convention due to a prior commitment.