Barron for president in 2044? Why Trump dynasty may look to youngest son

Published

5 months ago

November 17, 2024

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American presidents must be citizens, born in the US, a resident in the country for 14 years, and at least 35 years of age.

Barron William Trump was born in Florida on 20 March 2006.

He is the only child of Melania and Donald Trump, who has fathered four other children by his two previous wives.

Barron has lived between Florida, New York City and Washington DC all his life.

He qualifies as a potential POTUS – except for his age – the 18-year-old was only a first-time voter this November.

Read more:
Who is Barron Trump?
Meet the Trumps

But MAGA supporters seem ready to wait for the Trump dynasty to carry on in power – “Barron Trump President 2044” merchandise is already on sale on the internet.

Having guided his father on to the voter-rich “manosphere” of internet sites, Barron has become Donald’s favourite son and the main repository of the Trump family’s political ambitions – if he wants the role.

Young, blonde, with handsome Slavic looks, and towering over his 6ft 3in father, Barron, at least 6ft 7in, is a cult figure with the MAGA faithful who talk of his “aristocratic bearing”.

This year, when he made his first, rare, appearance at a campaign rally, his father suggested his other sons watch out for the competition he represents.

Overtaking his older half-siblings – Don Jr, Eric and Ivanka – in the pecking order is a remarkable metamorphosis for the mommie’s boy who seemed on the brink of tears nine years ago at his father’s first victory rally in New York City.

This year at Mar-a-Lago, Barron and his mother were the First Family elect, the first on to the stage with the president-elect.

Barron was singled out for thanks by his father. The young male voters Barron directed his father to woo had indeed made a significant contribution to the Republicans’ across-the-board victory.

The Wall Street Journal reported a shift to the right of some 28 points toward Trump in this group.

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning, 56% of male voters aged 18-28 backed Trump in 2024, up from 41% in 2020.

In the last campaign, Jared Kushner was in charge of the internet, then in his 30s.

This time a 27-year-old Republican consultant called Alex Bruesewitz produced a list of possible podcast appearances, which Trump immediately referred him to his youngest son: “Barron knows this stuff very well”.

Barron and his 18-year-old best friend, Bo Loudon, whose parents appeared on TV’s Wife Swap, then guided Trump to spend hours talking to hosts such as Logan Paul, Adin Ross, the Nelk Boys, Theo Von and, of course, Joe Rogan.

Trump’s interview with the comedian Theo Von has been viewed 15 million times.

His appearance on Joe Rogan has notched up 50 million views on YouTube alone, far more views than the presidential debates and convention keynote speeches.

There are now recriminations in the Democratic camp because Kamala Harris turned down her invitation to go on Joe Rogan for fear of “a backlash with some of our progressive colleagues”.

The left-wing independent Senator Bernie Sanders is almost a lone voice on the left arguing that cancelling right-of-centre outlets is counterproductive.

Trump burnished his celebrity on The Apprentice but was quick to understand that newer media outlets are the way to reach younger voters.

“They don’t grow up watching television the same way as we did. They grow up looking at the internet and watching a computer, right,” he noted.

Jamie Tahsin of Vice, who has spent five years studying the ultimate online bro Andrew Tate, describes Barron as “chronically online”.

The looser conversational style of these podcasts suited Trump, who came across as less aggressive, partly because he was not challenged or asked to talk about policy detail.

He was in tune with their typical obsessions of sports, bling, macho anti-woke posturing, trucks, wrestling and cryptocurrencies.

Tate, an accused rapist and human trafficker, has not been directly involved with Trump but still summarised the election as “men vs gays and chicks”.

Barron follows all this stuff and seems to be most interested in cryptocurrencies.

He joined his father and brothers to launch the World Liberty Financial.

On a livestream with two of WLF’s other founders, Chase Herro and Zachary Folkman, Trump commented: “Barron knows so much about this. Barron’s a young guy but he knows it. He talks about his wallet.”

Herro is also known for running the Date Hotter Girls service and crypto markets have soared since Trump’s re-election.

The name Barron, with its aristocratic overtones, has long appealed to Trump.

When he was making his way as a businessman, Trump used to call reporters claiming to be “John Barron”, a colleague of Trump’s, who would then go on to praise Trump’s various enterprises.

Then he gave the name Barron to his son.

Barron appears to share the family fondness for money-making schemes but it is not obvious yet that this diffident and polite young man has political ambitions. Those who know Barron say he is quiet, gentle and considerate – the opposite of a MAGA frat boy.

Barron went to three high schools as his father moved around the US. He has just started as a freshman at New York University’s Stern Business School. When fellow students teased him asking how he voted, he declined to say he is a Republican.

As so often his mother, Melania, spoke up for him, also without being partisan. She posted a picture of her son in the polling booth captioned “Voted for the first time – for his dad”.

Earlier Melania publicly turned down the invitation for Barron to speak at this year’s Republican Convention. His cousin Kia took the gig instead. Barron himself has no public social media presence.

Melania and her parents did much of the work raising Barron. They came to the US from Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. Barron speaks fluent Slovenian and as a small boy he spoke English with an accent like his mother.

His father claims he also speaks Chinese. Like her, he is an enigmatic figure, though he dresses in a suit and tie for his public appearances and is unlikely to appear in a coat emblazoned with “I don’t really care do you.”

America may be a republic rather than a monarchy, but dynasties still matter. They accumulate wealth and political know-how. Two generations of the Bush family were elected president.

Robert F Kennedy Jr has made a grotesque comeback as a Trump ally, trading on the family name of his father and uncle, President John F Kennedy.

Trump’s other children are dimmer political prospects.

Favourite daughter Ivanka was a close advisor last time her father was president but has repeatedly insisted that she has turned the page on politics.

Don Jr and Eric are keen, but not very bright, even in their father’s estimation.

Eric is concentrating on the commercial side of the Trump empire, while his wife Lara, currently co-chair of the Republican Party, may be in line for a job in the next administration.

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Don Jr goes down well with the MAGA faithful but lobbied hard for JD Vance to be vice president, scoring an own goal by recruiting someone likely better placed to follow his father into the White House.

Tiffany was brought up by her mother, Marla Maples, in California and largely stays away from campaigning.

That leaves the burden of expectation on the shoulders of Barron.

The world will have to wait until 2044 to see if his own ambitions, his mother, and his father’s legacy, leave him with a shot at the presidency.

US

Donald Trump’s tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics

Published

1 hour ago

April 3, 2025

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Donald Trump's tariffs will have consequences for globalisation, the US economy and geopolitics

For decades, trade and trade policy has been an economic and political backwater – decidedly boring, seemingly uncontroversial.

Trade was mostly free and getting freer, tariffs were getting lower and lower, and the world was becoming more, not less, globalised.

But alongside those long-term trends, there were some serious consequences.

Trump latest: US president announces sweeping global trade tariffs

Mature, developed economies like the UK and US became ever more reliant on cheap imports from China and, in the process, saw their manufacturing sectors shrink.

Large swathes of the rust belt in the US – and much of the Midlands and North of England – were hollowed out.

And to some extent that’s where the story of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” really began – with the notion that free trade and globalisation had a darker side, a side he wants to remedy via tariffs.

He imposed a set of tariffs in his first term, some on China, some on specific materials like steel and aluminium. But the height and the breadth of those tariffs were as nothing compared with the ones we have just heard about.

Not since the 1930s has the US so radically increased the level of tariffs on all nations across the world. Back then, those tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression.

It’s anyone’s guess as to what the consequences of these ones will be. But there will be consequences.

Consequences for the nature of globalisation, consequences for the US economy (tariffs are exceptionally inflationary), consequences for geopolitics.

And to some extent, merely knowing that little bit more about the White House’s plans will deliver a bit of relief to financial markets, which have fretted for months about the imposition of tariffs. That uncertainty recently reached unprecedented levels.

But don’t for a moment assume that this saga is over. Nothing of the sort. In the coming days, we will learn more – more about the nuts and bolts of these policies, more about the retaliatory measures coming from other countries.

We will, possibly, get more of a sense about whether some countries – including the UK – will enjoy reprieves from the tariffs.

To paraphrase Churchill, this isn’t the end of the trade war, or even the beginning of the end – perhaps just the end of the beginning.

US

‘A genius actor’, ‘firecracker’, and ‘my friend’: Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

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1 hour ago

April 3, 2025

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'A genius actor', 'firecracker', and 'my friend': Tributes paid to Top Gun star Val Kilmer

Actors, directors and celebrity friends have paid tribute to Val Kilmer, after he died aged 65.

The California-born star of Top Gun, Batman and Heat died of pneumonia on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told the Associated Press.

She said Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tributes flooded in after reports broke of the actor’s death, with No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin among the first to share their memories.

He wrote on Instagram: “See ya, pal. I’m going to miss you. You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There’s not a lot left of those.

“I hope to see you up there in the heavens when I eventually get there. Until then, amazing memories, lovely thoughts.”

Kyle Maclachlan, who co-starred with Kilmer in the 1991 biopic The Doors, wrote on social media: “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend.”

Michael Mann, who directed Kilmer in 1995’s Heat, also paid tribute in a statement, saying: “I always marvelled at the range, the brilliant variability within the powerful current of Val’s possessing and expressing character.

“After so many years of Val battling disease and maintaining his spirit, this is tremendously sad news.”

Heat co-star Danny Trejo also called Kilmer “a great actor, a wonderful person, and a dear friend of mine” on Instagram.

Cher, who once dated the actor, said on X that “U Were Funny, crazy, pain in the ass, GREAT FRIEND… BRILLIANT as Mark Twain, BRAVE here during ur sickness”.

Lifelong friend and director of Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola said: “Val Kilmer was the most talented actor when in his High School, and that talent only grew greater throughout his life.

“He was a wonderful person to work with and a joy to know – I will always remember him.”

The Top Gun account on X also said it was remembering Kilmer, who starred as Iceman in both the 1986 original and 2022 sequel, and “whose indelible cinematic mark spanned genres and generations”.

Nicolas Cage added that “I always liked Val and am sad to hear of his passing”.

“I thought he was a genius actor,” he said. “I enjoyed working with him on Bad Lieutenant and I admired his commitment and sense of humor.

“He should have won the Oscar for The Doors.”

US

Elon Musk calls reports he will step back from government role ‘fake news’

Published

1 hour ago

April 3, 2025

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Elon Musk calls reports he will step back from government role 'fake news'

Elon Musk has called reports that he will leave his government role in the coming months “fake news”.

A senior White House official previously told NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, that Donald Trump had discussed the Tesla and X boss transitioning back to the private sector at a cabinet meeting last month.

After reports emerged of the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it was “garbage” and added: “Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete.”

Mr Musk added in response on X: “Yeah, fake news.”

NBC News reported that the official said Mr Musk would leave at the end of his 130 days as a special government employee.

That would be 30 May, but it is unclear if the billionaire businessman will indeed leave on that date.

Previously, the White House said that as a temporary organisation, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would be terminated on 4 July next year – the 250th anniversary of the US.

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It comes days after Mr Musk said some members of his DOGE team were getting death threats on a daily basis.

Mr Musk had drawn criticism over his efforts to downsize the US federal government.

In just weeks, entire agencies were dismantled, and tens of thousands of workers from the 2.3 million federal workforce have been fired or have agreed to leave their jobs.

A number of lawsuits were filed in state and federal courts over cuts recommended by DOGE.