The Role President-Elect Donald Trump's Son Barron Played in Campaign
Originally appeared on E! Online
The 2024 presidential election has come to a close.
And Donald Trump is projected by NBC News to have won against Democratic candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris in a race that became a battle fought on all playing fields—including the podcast space.
While Harris made waves when she sat down with Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper to discuss the impact this election could have on women, Trump’s conversation with Joe Rogan was equally pivotal, and there’s one person he says was a key voice in encouraging him to take the interview: his and wife Melania Trump’s 18-year-old son Barron Trump.
“He tells me about all the hot guys,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo in October. “People I never heard about.”
And indeed, following his conversation with Rogan on the Joe Rogan Experience, the podcaster, who had previously shown support for Bernie Sanders in 2020, subsequently endorsed the 78-year-old.
As for how the appearance may have helped Trump reach his second term in the White House? The Joe Rogan Experience podcast averages 11 million listeners per episode, with a predominantly male audience, a key demographic the former president was looking for.
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According to Today, for the 2016 and 2020 elections—the former of which saw him beat Hillary Clinton before losing reelection to Joe Biden—about four in 10 men under the age of 30 supported Trump, whereas that number rose to almost half during the Nov. 5 election.
But while Trump and Rogan sat down for a three-hour conversation, Rogan said he was unable to meet the requests from Harris’ team—including flying to meet her on the campaign trail.
“For the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast,” the comedian wrote on X, formerly Twitter, Oct. 29. “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin.”
He continued, “My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”
Ultimately, however, it didn’t happen.
And on Nov. 5 Americans voted to reinstate Trump in the White House.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” he said at a campaign party Nov. 6. "This was a movement like no one has ever seen before. Frankly, I believe this was the greatest political movement of all time.”
He continued, “Now it is going to reach a new level of importance. Because we are going to help our country heal.”
Read on to learn more about Trump’s youngest son and the President-elect’s family tree.
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Ivana Trump
Ivana Trump was the first wife of President-elect Donald Trump. Born in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia—now Zlín of the Czech Republic—in 1949, she rose to fame as a competitive skier. And, thanks to her marriage to Austrian ski instructor Alfred Winklmayr in 1971, Ivana was able to travel often outside of Czechoslovakia.
According to her book Raising Trump, the model met Donald three years after her 1973 divorce during a New York trip, where she'd traveled for a Canadian fashion show ahead of the Montreal Olympics. They wed in 1977 and welcomed three kids: Donald Trump Jr. born in 1977, Ivanka Trump born in 1981 and Eric Trump born in 1984.
The pair's divorce was finalized in 1992 following his affair with Marla Maples, whom he later married.
However, Ivana—who then married Riccardo Mazzucchelli for two years followed by Rossano Rubicondi for less than a year—and Donald remained on good terms.
“Donald during the divorce was brutal,” she told ABC News in 2017. “He took the divorce as a business deal, and he cannot lose. He has to win. So he took about two years. And after the final situation was straightened up, we would just talk and we are friends.”
Ivana died in 2022 at age 73. According to NBC News, the New York City Medical Examiner said she died of “blunt impact injuries” and that her manner of death was an accident. A senior NYC official with direct knowledge added the circumstances were consistent with a fall on the stairs in her New York apartment.
Donald Trump Jr.
In 1977, Ivana and Donald welcomed their eldest son Donald Trump Jr. He began working for his father’s company The Trump Organization in 2001 and now serves as the executive vice president. Don Jr. has also been involved in his dad’s political campaigns, including speaking at rallies and the Republican National Convention during his father's presidential runs.
He shares five children with his ex-wife, model Vanessa Haydon: Kai (who made a speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention) Donald III, Tristan, Spencer and Chloe. Don Jr. is now engaged to Fox News alum Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Ivanka Trump
Four years after the arrival of Don Jr., Donald and Ivana became parents to daughter Ivanka Trump.
Before her father’s presidency, the University of Pennsylvania alum worked at The Trump Organization. But after he was elected in 2016, the fashion brand founder—who had her own eponymous line—took on the role of Advisor to the President.
After her dad announced he would be running for president again in 2024, Ivanka revealed she would be stepping out of the political arena to focus on her family with husband, former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, and their children Arabella, Joseph and Theodore.
“I love my father very much,” she said in part of a 2022 statement obtained by NBC News. “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”
Eric Trump
Born in 1984, Eric Trump is the third child of Ivana and Donald. Like his brother, he works as executive vice president of The Trump Organization, which he joined in 2007.
He is married to Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, with whom he shares kids Luke and Carolina.
Marla Maples
Marla Maples is Donald’s second wife, whom he met while still married to Ivana.
In Raising Trump, Ivana wrote the actress approached her about the affair during a trip to Aspen in 1989. Still, Marla said on a 2018 episode of the ABC podcast Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris that she “never considered” herself a mistress.
"My intention was to never bring hurt," she continued. "Do I wish more than anything that we could have had this relationship after his divorce papers were signed? Absolutely. I mean, with all my heart. How much heartache would it have saved so many people if I had seen that piece of paper before we got involved? But it didn't happen that way."
Marla and Donald welcomed daughter Tiffany Trump in 1993, and the couple wed later that year. However, the Dancing With the Stars alum and the 45th commander in chief announced their separation four years later and finalized their divorce in 1999.
Tiffany Trump
After her parents’ breakup, Tiffany Trump relocated with her mother to California.
"She moved us out of New York to get out of the spotlight and let me grow up and find my own identity versus being in the shadow of a name or growing up very young with all that pressure,” Tiffany told People in 2016. “So, she wanted me to have a chance to have a normal childhood. As normal as possible. I think that she did well in that.”
She released her 2011 single “Like a Bird" and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 with a B.A. in sociology, focusing on law and society. She then went to Georgetown Law School, where she graduated with a JD in 2020.
In 2022, Tiffany wed Michael Boulos. Her father announced they're expecting their first baby during an October 2024 speech at the Detroit Economic Club. "She’s an exceptional young woman," he said during his remarks. "And she’s going to have a baby. So that’s nice.”
Melania Trump
Melania Trump is Donald’s third wife and incoming First Lady of the United States. Born in Mesto, Slovenia in 1970, she is the second First Lady to be born outside of the U.S. and the only First Lady to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Melania met Donald in New York in 1996 while she was working as a model.
“It was a big fashion party that my friend organized, fashion week, and he invited me,” she recalled on a 2016 episode of On the Record With Greta Van Susteren. “That’s how we met with Donald.”
Melania and Donald married in 2005, and they welcomed son Barron Trump the following year.
Barron Trump
Born in 2006, Barron Trump is Donald and Melania’s only child. While he has lived a more private life—relocating with his parents from New York to live in Washington, D.C. and then Florida—it looked like he might enter the political world after he was selected in May 2024 as a Florida delegate to the Republican National Convention. However, Barron declined the offer.
"While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party,” a statement from Melania’s office shared with NBC News at the time said, “he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.”
Like studying, perhaps, with Barron starting his freshman year at New York University in 2024. "He was accepted to a lot of colleges," his father told the Daily Mail in an interview published Sept. 4. "He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at NYU."
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