Updated May 10, 2024 at 18:20 PM ET
Barron Trump, the youngest of the former president's children, will not be a delegate at the Republican National Convention, his mother's office said Friday, a day after his name appeared on a list of Florida delegates — along with other members of the Trump family — at the GOP convention in Milwaukee in July.
"While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments," the Office of Melania Trump said in a statement.
Former President Trump's older children have played key roles in his political career and helped him manage his businesses. But he and former first lady Melania Trump have kept Barron, who turned 18 in March, out of the spotlight.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University, said while there are notable examples of political family dynasties — such as the Bush and Kennedy clans — those families started in politics, and not in business as the Trumps have.
"The Trump family might be trying to position themselves as the next dynasty," said Zelizer, who noted both Eric and Don Jr.'s involvement and interest in politics.
Barron Trump has been largely out of the public eye until recently, when Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump's hush money payment trial in New York, announced that the court will not sit on May 17 so that Trump could attend his son's high school graduation ceremony. That is also the same day that the former president is slated to deliver the keynote address for the Minnesota Republican Party's annual Lincoln Reagan dinner, per reporting from radio station KFGO.
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