Donald Trump’s youngest son, and his only child shared with Melania Trump, has largely remained out of the public eye to the degree any former president’s child could. Well, until recently. Newly 18, Barron Trump is now a freshman at NYU and a burgeoning political adviser to his father.

For the past two weeks, my TikTok For You page has been filled with posts from New York University students posting clips of Barron Trump attending classes as if he were Sasquatch: the videos are all blurry and taken hurriedly, and mostly feature fellow students trying to track down the once-elusive Trump. These cryptic videos, complete with shaky camera angles set to songs like Chamillionaire’s “Ridin,’” are all over, taken from “day in my life”-style student videos and reposted to the dozens of Barron stan accounts across TikTok and Instagram.

These posts have garnered millions of views and look like paparazzi shots. You can tell from the camera angle that the people filming are trying to hide their cameras under backpacks or sweaters. New genres of Barron memes have flourished.

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“I feel like Barron could’ve gone to any school, but the fact that he chose one of the most liberal schools in the country speaks volumes,” Grace Rowley, an NYU student who posted about Barron on TikTok, told me. “I was shocked and super intrigued that he would choose NYU. Would love to speak with him and would love to read his ‘why NYU’ essay.”

This kind of projection has been part of Barron’s story for years.

Before September, Barron was an enigma. He had no social media accounts and rarely made public appearances. For eight years, his personal life and interests were left to the public’s imagination. In 2020, rumors spread on TikTok that his then classmates had identified his Roblox username, “JumpyTurtlee.” The account’s bio said that the user was a fan of anime and K-pop and supported LGBTQ+ rights. While the rumor was never confirmed, it became part of Barron’s online mythos. Users would grab clips of him looking glum and make it sound as if he were miserable and despised his father, and then post them under the hashtag #savebarron2020.

Barron was the subject of dozens of pieces of fan fiction on sites like Archive of Our Own and Wattpad, and on fan accounts that recycle the same few clips and images over and over again. As Slate writer Luke Winkie noted earlier this year, Barron became a blank canvas for anyone even somewhat interested in the Trump family to project their own “fantasies” on to.

As Winkie also noted, the weird Greco-Roman antiquity-obsessed wing of the conservative base has obsessed over Barron as well, comparing his jawline to that of Alexander the Great and referring to him as America’s Caesar. Earlier this week, someone made an account seemingly impersonating Barron, making it appear as though he were making misogynistic comments about Kamala Harris. That account has since been suspended.

But fans of Barron won’t need to make up their own personal headcanons any longer, especially as it looks like Barron is beginning to take on a more public-facing role supporting his father. He made an X account on Monday to join a Space hosted by Trump to announce the former president’s new crypto venture. “He talks about his wallet, he’s got four wallets or something, and I’ll say, ‘What is a wallet?” the former president said. When Trump sat for an interview with Kick streamer Adin Ross earlier this year, he said that Barron was a fan of Ross. “My son’s told me about you,” Trump told him.

Time will tell, but for now, I’m not sure the internet can assume Barron is merely a weeb anymore. At least we’ll probably find out on TikTok soon.

The Chatroom

Regardless of what World Liberty Financial does or does not do, Trump launching a new business less than 50 days before the election has some critics rolling their eyes. There’s nothing stopping a decentralized finance platform from accepting funds from foreign investors, raising concerns that Trump could be violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause. (Haven’t heard that term in a while!)

What do you think about the project? Send me an email at [email protected], or reach out on social media. You can find links to my accounts below.

WIRED Reads

• Laura Loomer Is MAGA at Its Most Extreme—and She’s Closer to Donald Trump Than Ever: Laura Loomer has been seen traveling across the country with Trump, and reportedly helped him prepare for the last debate. David Gilbert explains how Loomer went from locking herself to the NYC Twitter HQ to flying on Trump Force One.
• Elon Musk Is a National Security Risk: Elon Musk’s companies are contracted with the US government, but his recent tweet about the lack of assassination plots against Joe Biden or Kamala Harris may make him a threat to national security.
• The Mystery of Hezbollah’s Deadly Exploding Pagers: Eleven people have been killed and more than 2,800 injured in Lebanon after pagers owned by Hezbollah exploded this week.

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What Else We’re Reading

🔗 TikTok Just Had the Most Important Two Hours of its Life: The case that could save TikTok from a nationwide ban kicked off this Monday, and the judges were pretty skeptical of the company’s arguments. (CNN)

🔗 How the Trump Campaign Ran With Rumors About Pet-Eating Migrants—After Being Told They Weren’t True: Before launching racist attacks against immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, the Trump campaign called the city and were told the cat-eating rumors were baseless. (Wall Street Journal)

🔗 The Swiftie Vote: Gen Z Outreach Group Hits Engagement Milestone: The youth voting group Voters of Tomorrow and the Swifties for Harris group have so far contacted at least 1 million young voters ahead of the election. (HuffPost)

The Download

Tim Marchman and David Gilbert joined Leah Feiger on the pod this week to talk about far-right agitator and pundit Laura Loomer. Is Loomer a mirror for Trump’s worst tendencies—or is she fueling them? What does it mean for the campaign? Go ahead and listen wherever you get your podcasts!

That’s it for today—thanks again for subscribing. You can get in touch with me via email, Instagram, X, and Signal at makenakelly.32.