Whether the Founders intended it or not — and I'm pretty sure they didn't — we have long been a country that has had political families, even dynasties. One could argue that it began with John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, although that political family fizzled out. But there were and are more: Roosevelts, Kennedys, Cuomos, Daleys, Bushes.
Could the next political family be the Trumps?
It will soon be Barron Trump’s time to step into the political spotlight.
Trump, former President Donald Trump’s youngest child, who will graduate from high school next week and has largely been kept out of the political spotlight, was picked by the Republican Party of Florida on Wednesday night as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, according to a list of delegates obtained by NBC News.
“We have a great delegation of grassroots leaders, elected officials and even Trump family members,” Florida GOP chairman Evan Power said. “Florida is continuing to have a great convention team, but more importantly we are preparing to win Florida and win it big.”
If one is thinking of starting a political career as a Republican, Florida would be one of the better places to do so.
In a family full of politically involved children, Barron Trump, who turned 18 in March, has retained much more of a private life than his older brothers, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom will also be Florida at-large RNC delegates, along with Trump’s daughter Tiffany.
So, quite a few Trumps will be at the Republican National Convention.
Here's the thing: At this point, we know very little about Barron Trump. We know that he is tall and physically imposing, although still very young. With a few years of maturity, and if he manages to duplicate his father's determined glare, he could present a great image. But would he have his father's trademark bombast, or would he be more measured, more reserved, like his mother?
All that would be some way in the future, of course, as Barron is just graduating high school. As of this writing, there is no information readily available about his college plans, if there are any.
This is all speculation, of course. But ever since that fateful day when Donald Trump descended the golden escalator and announced his run for president, several members of his family have become very politically active, although only as activists, rather than running for office. Barron may step into that role — or he may eschew the political world altogether, and in all seriousness, that wouldn't be a bad thing.
Not only is politics a dirty, dirty business — and boy howdy has the ascendancy of Donald Trump stripped the mask off of that — American politics isn't supposed to have a hereditary element to it. We aren't supposed to be a country with political dynasties. In the run-up to the 2000 election, I had reservations about George W. Bush for that reason (among others) although I voted for him in the general election.
But here we are, in the 2024 presidential election, with a Kennedy among our choices.
Barron Trump will do what he will do, of course. Being an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention isn't a signal of anything other than that he is an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention. But he's 18 now, and he almost certainly isn't sure himself about what he's going to do. Time will tell.
UPDATE [05/10/2024, 6:17 p.m. EDT]: CNN Political Reporter Alayna Treene reports in an update that both the Trump campaign and Melania Trump's office now say Barron "will no longer serve as a delegate":