It was a tennis lesson that Barron Trump won’t soon forget. In a recent interview with Fox News’ Mark Levin, Donald Trump revealed his youngest son learned that his father had been shot while on the court.
“He's a good tennis player. And somebody ran up (and said), ‘Barron! Barron! Your father's been shot!,’” the former president recounted. Trump said that Barron reacted immediately: “He loves his father. He’s a good kid, good student. And he ran, ‘Mom! What’s going on? What’s going on?”
According to Trump, his wife, Melania, was watching coverage of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and saw the attempt on his life play out live. “She was watching it live. Can you imagine? And then I got up and let people know I was okay. Fight. Fight. Fight. But it was a big hit,” Trump said.
In a previous interview with Fox News, Trump had spoken about Melania’s reaction to seeing the assassination attempt: “When I could talk to people, I said, ‘So what was your feeling?’, and she said she can’t even talk about it, which is okay because that means she likes me,” he said. Trump was on Fox News promoting his new book Save America, which will be released Sept. 3.
At another point in the interview, Trump said that, after he had been taken to safety following the shooting, his son, Donald Trump Jr., who is “great with guns,” told him, “I can't believe it. From that distance… I can't believe it.”
“From that distance it's supposed to be, like, a sure thing,” Trump continued, alluding that the shooter, Matthew Crooks, should have had no problem hitting him directly. “Like sinking a one-foot putt.” Trump had been showing a chart of border crossing statistics when he was shot. “If I turned around just a little bit less, or a little bit more,” he said. “If I turned around more or less, it was still the end.”
So how did he end up with only a minor injury, with only a bullet grazing his ear? “It's God. I know people that have become believers in God because of it.”
This week, all eyes will be on where Barron might be when he’s not on the tennis court. The 18-year-old graduated from Florida’s Oxbridge Academy last month and is supposed to start college this fall. Trump told The New York Post that Barron would be attending a college in New York, and will be starting “soon.”
Thus far, there’s been no confirmed sighting of Barron on any of the New York college campuses who started freshman orientation in recent weeks. It’s worth noting, however, that New York University’s first day of fall semester classes is Tuesday, Sept. 3, should anyone spot a 6-foot-7 freshman wandering around Washington Square Park in Manhattan.
Barron’s possible NYU enrollment with also track, given a cryptic, amusingly loquacious post about New York that Barron’s mother, Melania, made on X last week.
“New York City captivated my heart the moment I arrived 28 years ago today,” the former first lady wrote, captioning a not particularly captivating aerial photo of Midtown Manhattan. “This electrifying town isn’t just my home; it’s a colorful canvas where dreams come alive. New York’s iconic skyline and vibrant culture inspire me every day.”