Donald Trump openly joked about losing the popular vote in his own household.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Aug. 18, the president admitted that his wife, first lady Melania Trump, favors their 19-year-old son, Barron, over him.
“She’s got a great love of children, she has a wonderful son that she loves probably more than anybody, including me, I hate to say it,” Donald, 79, said with a laugh while seated in the Oval Office beside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump’s lighthearted remark about Melania, 55, came after Zelenskyy thanked the first lady for urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his invasion of Ukraine just days earlier.
Although Melania was not present at her husband’s Alaska summit with Putin on Aug. 15, she had Donald hand-deliver a personal letter on her behalf, appealing for peace for the children affected by the war in Ukraine.
Speaking about his wife’s decision to reach out to Putin on behalf of children, Donald said, “She loves her son, she loves children, and she hates to see something like this happening.”
In her letter to Putin, Melania wrote, “Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger.”
Born and raised in communist Yugoslavia, Melania left the country to work as a model in the early 1990s as the region began to destabilize. She became a modern-day citizen of Slovenia after Yugoslavia split into multiple successor states.
In her letter, Melania urged Putin to protect the “innocence” of children in warring countries.
“As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope,” she wrote. “As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few. Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all — so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded.”
She added, “You will do more than serve Russia alone — you serve humanity itself… Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of a pen today. It is time.”
The first lady has long been protective of her only child. After Donald won reelection last fall, multiple sources spoke with PEOPLE about how Melania works to shield Barron from political backlash.
“Melania worries about the hate in the country and how it falls on her son, who is innocent of any of this,” a social source said. “She is and has been a good sounding board for him. They talk about life as it is and how they are in the spotlight. She tries to normalize his life, if that is even possible.”
Melania’s parents have also been strong sources of support for Barron since his birth. Though her mother, Amalija Knavs, died in January 2024, her father, Viktor, remains close to the family.
“Melania’s most meaningful moments of life have been with her family, and Barron is the lucky benefactor of that love and caring,” the source said.
A separate source from Palm Beach, Fla., where the Trump family’s Mar-a-Lago estate is located, added, “Any child in the world spotlight like this would be lucky to have a parent so willing to give her time to help keep his life running smoothly.”
Earlier this year, Melania also issued a rare personal statement to quash a viral rumor that the president was targeting Harvard University because they rejected Barron.
“Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false” a spokesperson for Melania told PEOPLE in May.
The president’s youngest son is expected to begin his second year at New York University’s Stern School of Business this fall.
