Barron Trump Will Not Be a Delegate at the G.O.P. Convention After All – The New York Times
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Two days after the Florida Republican Party selected Barron, 18, to be an at-large delegate, Melania Trump’s office said he “regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.”
Barron Trump, former President Donald J. Trump’s youngest son who has stayed out of the spotlight since his father entered politics, will not serve as one of Florida’s delegates to the Republican National Convention, the office of Melania Trump announced on Friday.
In a statement released two days after Barron, 18, was selected to be an at-large delegate by the Florida Republican Party, Mrs. Trump’s office said that Barron was “honored” to be chosen but that he “regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.”
The Trump campaign referred a request for comment to a spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump, who did not immediately respond to questions about what those commitments might be.
Barron, who will graduate from high school next week and who plans to attend college in the fall, has largely not participated in his father’s political career.
Mrs. Trump has fiercely guarded her son’s privacy, even as some of his older siblings have been in the spotlight, campaigning for their father during the Republican primary while he and Mrs. Trump were largely absent from the trail.
Hours before Mrs. Trump’s office released its statement, Mr. Trump suggested in a radio interview that Barron, whom he called “good-looking” and “on the tall side,” was among his political advisers.
“He’s really been a great student. And he does like politics,” Mr. Trump said on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT in Philadelphia. “It’s sort of funny. He’ll tell me sometimes, ‘Dad, this is what you have to do.’”
Barron’s older brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric, campaigned for their father this year during the Republican nominating contest, and both have become popular political figures in their own right. Both of them, as well as their sister Tiffany were among the 41 at-large delegates chosen by the Florida Republican Party for the national convention in July. Another sister, Ivanka Trump, who has not taken part in her father’s political ventures since she left the White House, was not.
The Florida Republican Party did not immediately respond to questions about how Barron had been chosen as a delegate.
All four of Barron’s siblings gave speeches at the party’s conventions in 2016 and 2020, when Barron was still a minor. The Trump campaign and Mrs. Trump’s office did not respond to questions about whether Barron would attend or otherwise take part in the 2024 convention in some fashion, and Mr. Trump did not address them in his radio interview.
Mr. Trump has said for months that his wife would join him on the campaign trail, though she has remained absent from rallies, speeches and victory celebrations. She did attend a fund-raiser last month for the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of L.G.B.T. conservatives.
Michael Gold is a political correspondent for The Times covering the campaigns of Donald J. Trump and other candidates in the 2024 presidential elections. More about Michael Gold
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