Donald Trump has dropped yet another hint about his youngest son’s plans after graduating high school on Friday, revealing at Mar-a-Lago last week that Barron is looking at different colleges than he was two months prior.
That’s the first insight the family has given on Barron’s collegiate plans in more than a year, when the elder Trump said his son was “thinking about” attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he and three of his children attended.
Other rumors have swirled suggesting Barron is considering returning to Manhattan to attend New York University, mere blocks from his childhood home atop Trump Tower. Those rumors may now be kaput, however, if the 18-year-old has a new set of schools on his shortlist, as his dad suggested.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Right now, he’s doing a great job,” Trump said last week, as reported in Newsweek. “He has great marks. He’s going to be going to college soon. And we’re looking at some colleges that are different than they were two months ago.”
There’s no set timeline on when Barron will announce his college plans, but his apparent interest in politics—at least, according to his dad—has put him under increased media scrutiny as he enters the public eye after 18 years of being largely shielded by his loved ones.
Barron will graduate from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach on Friday morning in a “private, invitation only” ceremony. His dad, having gotten the day off from his hush-money trial in New York City, is expected to attend before he has to jet to a fundraising event in Minnesota that evening.
Towering over his classmates at 6-foot-7, it’s been suggested that Barron may play college sports. He was a standout soccer player while his dad was still in the White House, but he’s not been listed on the roster for any of Oxbridge Academy’s teams the last three years.
The pricey academy, established in 2011 by the youngest of the billionaire Koch brothers, William I. Koch, costs a whopping $41,500 a year for high schoolers not on scholarship. Its recent graduates have been accepted into some of the nation’s top schools, including Northwestern, UCLA, Boston University, Cornell, and Vanderbilt.
Students at the school and their parents have remained tight-lipped about Barron’s time there, with over a dozen declining interview requests from The Daily Beast and over a dozen more ignoring calls, emails, and texts entirely.
There was a small glimpse into Barron’s time at the school last month, however, when he was spotted in the back of a snap taken at the school’s $170-a-ticket, Monte Carlo-themed prom at a resort about 20 minutes north of Mar-a-Lago.
Trump said last week that his son is “very popular” in school. In a separate interview, he said Barron occasionally offers him political advice.
“It’s sort of funny. He’ll tell me sometimes, ‘Dad, this is what you have to do,’” Trump said on Kayal and Company on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, a Philadelphia-based radio station.
Barron was slated to make his first foray into politics later this year, with Florida inviting him to be a delegate at the Republican National Convention alongside his siblings. That invite was “regretfully declined” by Barron a day later, however, after Melania’s office announced he had prior commitments.
