Inside Donald Trump's relationship with Barron
On October 14, 2020, Melania Trump revealed that Barron Trump, her son with President Donald Trump, had contracted COVID-19. That same day, the commander-in-chief and the Republican electoral incumbent allegedly used the diagnosis as a push to reopen schools in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. As USA Today Trump reportedly told attendees at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa that his teenage son's positive COVID test was a case of eventuality. (As per CNN, more than 220,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus as of October 19, 2020.)
"It happens," said Trump, who also contracted the coronavirus in early October 2020. "People have it and it's gone. He takes the children back to school. We have to bring them back to school “.
While news of Barron's initial positive COVID status came after the teen had apparently been tested again - this time, as negative - many felt that the president's use of his son's meeting with the disease was a way to strengthen their agenda in minimizing the virus, according to Business Insider. So what is the relationship between father and son really? Read on after the jump to find out.
Details about Barron Trump's childhood have always been kept secret
While many of President Donald Trump's children - most notably Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. - are not just public figures, but are active members of his administration or supporters of his presidency, 14-year-old Barron Trump it is notoriously private. This was largely due in part to the efforts of First Lady Melania Trump, who explained in a 2016 interview with ABC News that her mother's prerogative was “just to have [Barron] the most normal childhood. possible. "
Although Melania's attempts to regulate this have been successful - thanks in part to limiting her son's public appearances as a member of the First Family to absolutely mandatory ones - there were also points during Trump's first term that inadvertently necessitated Barron. related content from the media.
Aside from Barron's recent COVID-19 scare, the first incident in which the youngest Trump was forced into the ring occurred in 2017. This was when Melania and Barron didn't immediately move to the White House from the ring. Trump penthouse in New York Trump's inauguration to allow Barron to finish the school year before changing farm, according to CNN.
Donald Trump and Barron could largely lead separate lives
Indeed, when it comes to what little we know about presidential son Barron Trump, almost all of the few details about his personal life are related to his mother, first lady Melania Trump, rather than to his father, President Donald Trump. . Part of that may have to do with the fact that both POTUS and FLOTUS lead largely separate lives, as both White House insiders and some biographical experts claim.
In the Unauthorized 2019 biography Libero, Melania, author and journalist Kate Bennett revealed that not only Trump and the first lady supposedly sleep in separate bedrooms, but they live in completely different neighborhoods of the White House. (According to Yahoo !, Melania, through her rep, denied the accusation of sleeping in different rooms.) As the book states, Melania's alleged private living space, which is on a separate floor, is also the place. where Barron himself resides.
Plus, it's not the first time Barron's arrangement includes such a stark separation from his father's. According to news outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, the youngest of the Trump lineage previously had his own private floor in Trump Tower Penthouse, New York City. But even if the living conditions of the Trump family may be unusual or unconventional at best, do they necessarily serve as a barometer for the relationship between the president and Barron?
Donald Trump has been protective of his son Barron in the past
While unusual aspects of the Trump family dynamics may lead some to interpret the relationship between President Donald Trump and his son, 14-year-old Barron Trump, as distant or noticeably limited feasible, there is also evidence to suggest it is a bit more complex. . of what meets the eye.
Perhaps the best example is Trump's perceived protective streak for his son, an attribute that came to prominence in 2017 after comedian Kathy Griffin, in a flawed attempt to show her contempt for the president, posted photos and a video. which showed Griffin with a likeness. of her of her severed head. After the post went viral, it was reported that Barron had stumbled upon the graphic photos and was subsequently (and understandably) traumatized by the images. Although Griffin later publicly apologized for the incident after a considerable bipartisan public backlash, she did little to appease Trump's anger, which she later vocalized in a series of tweets.
“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself,” Trump tweeted at the time. “My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!"
Despite Trump's attempt to point out the traumatic consequences of Griffin's post about young Barron, Griffin later questioned the veracity of his claim and motives after the image was later used in an announcement by the GOP in relation. to the Republican National Convention, for Deadline.
According to experts, Donald Trump's body language projects "pride" to his son Barron
While Donald Trump's protection of his son Barron Trump could be interpreted in a number of ways, a body language expert has revealed his take on the couple's relationship.
In a June 2020 article published by L'Espresso Judi James, the president's communications and body language expert and Melania Trump, said the way Trump posed with Barron while their photos were taken in public suggests a kind of pride - one in which, during the pre-teen Barron years, manifested in putting it on display.
"Trump's body language cues with his son Barron suggest he's a bit of a 'Lion King' dad, proudly introducing the boy to the world while suggesting he's a chip from the old block," James said of photo of Trump and his son taken at the start of Trump's first term in the Oval Office. Things changed, however, as Barron got older.
"Eventually, once Barron gets taller and those 'stabilizing' hands come off, Trump appears to show trust in his son by allowing him his independence from body language," said James L'Espresso, describing the alleged evolution of their report. While James may be confident in his assessment, at least one White House insider says something to the contrary.
Is Donald Trump an "absent" father?
In 2018, reporter Michael Wolff recounted all Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House could originally have been meant as a harsh indictment of how Donald Trump's behavior within the confines of the West Wing has influenced domestic and foreign policy in general, but it also called attention to an entirely different factor: the way Trump supposedly functions as a patriarch of the family. And as many Trump-centric exhibits have done before and since, Fire and Fury's portrayal of Trump as a father. Wolff's book painted an unflattering image, to say the least.
“An absent father for his first four children, Trump was even more absent for his fifth, Barron, his son with Melania. Now in his third marriage, he told friends that he thought he had finally perfected the art: live and let live - "do your thing," wrote Wolff, for the International Business Times.
Considering the meager amount of information we have about Donald Trump and his relationship with Barron, one thing remains seemingly clear: we'll never really know unless Barron decides to go public himself.
