Donald Trump's last speech as President on January 20 might have brought relief to many of his critics, but a lot of them couldn't help but notice that one person was missing. His wife Melania was there, as were his four oldest kids, but youngest son Barron was nowhere to be found. Had they left him in the house and forgotten him? Was he already chilling on the plane? Had he disappeared like Chuck on Happy Days? It wasn't the first function that Barron was left out of either, which led to a lot of jokes and also some genuine concern on social media. Let's take a look at why you rarely saw Barron during Donald Trump's presidency.
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00:00When Donald Trump gave his final speech as the 45th president of the United States
00:04on Wednesday, January 20th, his son Barron Trump was nowhere to be found.
00:08The rest of the family, including Trump's wife Melania, his daughters Ivanka and Tiffany,
00:12and his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, gathered at Joint Base Andrews for his final send-off.
00:16Barron, however, was notably missing in action. Many wondered why the 14-year-old was not in
00:21attendance during the momentous event, and a firestorm of questions rang out on social media.
00:26One Twitter user posted,
00:27Did they leave Barron inside? Giving a nod to the former first son's former home, the White House.
00:32Another user said,
00:33Did Trump just home alone Barron Trump? I didn't see him get on Air Force One.
00:36The Bidens better check the basement.
00:42Barron was also absent from the Trump family's Christmas card in 2017,
00:45and as East Bay Times reported, many accused his parents of a snub.
00:49Years later, it was alleged that Barron was left out of his family's annual Christmas Eve dinner,
00:53according to Express. Another tweet rang out after the Trump family's 2019 celebration, asking,
00:58So where's the kid? Where's Barron? Does he not spend time with any of his children
01:02when they are teenagers? It's Christmas, and you would think they would have showed off the kid.
01:06From the moment former President Donald Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton,
01:11Barron Trump, just 10 years old at the time, was subject to harsh criticism and downright
01:15bullying on social media for his demeanor during his father's victory speeches.
01:18As The Sun reported,
01:20It was 3 in the morning, and Barron was obviously exhausted,
01:22and likely bored like any kid his age would be. But the internet trolls,
01:26and likely some angry critics of the controversial election,
01:29took out their frustrations on the young Barron. According to the outlet,
01:32one Twitter user went so far as to comment,
01:35Meanwhile, Barron Trump looking like Damian the Antichrist.
01:38Sadly, it didn't stop there. Even celebrities thought fit to bring Trump's youngest into
01:42their political commentary. Most notoriously, in a since-deleted video, Rosie O'Donnell,
01:46without any prompting, speculated that Barron might have autism.
01:50Variety reported that the often outspoken O'Donnell shared a seven-minute video compiling
01:54clips from the Republican National Convention, the presidential debates,
01:57and Trump's acceptance speech that suggested 10-year-old Barron might be showing signs of autism.
02:02At the time, she claimed she raised the issue because her own daughter was on the spectrum,
02:05and she doubled down in a since-deleted tweet defending her controversial video, saying,
02:09What an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the autism epidemic.
02:13Regardless of O'Donnell's motivation, bringing a minor into the conversation was inappropriate,
02:17and she was quickly chided for her lapse in judgment. Chelsea Clinton was one of
02:20Barron Trump's most fervent defenders at the time, and her ability to put aside her
02:24partisan alignment and see the potential harm of mocking a child in the media
02:27likely came from firsthand experience. In a tweet from August of 2017, Clinton demanded,
02:32It's high time the media and everyone leave Barron Trump alone,
02:35and let him have the private childhood he deserves.
02:37Melania Trump was obviously well aware of the online bullying and criticism of her only child,
02:42and she quickly took to Twitter to thank Chelsea Clinton for her support, writing,
02:45Thank you, Chelsea Clinton. So important to support all of our children and being themselves.
02:50She concluded the tweet with the hashtag,
02:51Stop childhood bullying.
02:53It was less than a year later that the former FLOTUS launched her Be Best campaign,
02:57which would focus on childhood mental health issues and social media bullying.
03:00While the exact reason behind Barron's absences may never be disclosed,
03:03they could simply be the result of his parents, especially mom Melania, wishing to shelter him.
03:08As some might recall, Melania was forced to speak out against Professor Pamela Carlin
03:12in December 2019 after she used Barron to make a point about President Trump not being above the
03:17law.
03:17So while the president can name his son Barron, he can't make him a baron.
03:22The professor's attempted zinger did not land, and Melania immediately fired back on Twitter,
03:27saying,
03:27A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics. Pamela Carlin,
03:32you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering
03:35and using a child to do it.
03:37A short time later, Carlin offered a public apology for her comments about Barron, saying,
03:41I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the president's son.
03:44It was wrong of me to do that. I wish the president would apologize,
03:47obviously, for the things that he has done that's wrong, but I do regret having said that.