President Donald Trump, a father of five, repeatedly referred to his youngest son, Barron Trump, as first lady Melania Trump’s “boy” while speaking to lawmakers at the Congressional Ball.
The president, 79, brought up Barron during the Thursday, Dec. 11, event after Melania teased the start of a new initiative in her own remarks. Donald admitted he didn’t yet know the details but predicted it would be “great for children.”
“I don’t know what it is she’s doing, but I know it’s going to be great for children, because she loves children and she’s got a wonderful boy and she’s very proud of him, her boy,” he said, referring to 19-year-old Barron.
Barron is Donald’s only child with Melania. The president also shares Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump with his late first wife, Ivana Trump, and daughter Tiffany Trump with his second wife, Marla Maples.
After spending his freshman year at NYU in New York City, Barron has since relocated to Washington, D.C., for his sophomore year, attending classes at the university’s D.C. campus.
In November, Donald appeared to reveal that Barron is living in the White House. When Fox News’ Laura Ingraham asked about him during a tour of the residence, the president responded, “He’s right upstairs,” before adding with a smile, “Wanna see him?”
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“He’s doing a good job,” Donald continued. “He’s tall. He’s a tall one.”
Ingraham then remarked that many people speculate Barron could one day run for president. Donald began to answer, “I don’t know. I think—” before she jumped in to suggest other possibilities: “Or Eric, or a lot of people are wondering which child would be the best.”
“In a certain way, they all could,” Donald said, quickly shifting the topic to highlight his golden “Presidential Walk of Fame” in the West Colonnade.
During his Thursday night speech, Donald also made a bold claim about his international influence, telling guests, “The European nations are reporting that your president might as well be the leader of the European nations also. They listen to us and they respect us like they’ve never respected us before.”
In a gentler moment, he offered rare praise to Democrats in attendance, saying, “Many of you in Congress worked very hard, both sides this year, to keep the promises that you were elected on to deliver big wins for the American people.”
He added, “And Democrats worked very hard, too,” before pivoting to critique several policies. “I mean, I think you could get rid of a couple of your little policies like men and women sports, open borders, transgender for everybody. But other than that, other than that, I like what you’re doing.”
