Donald Trump may be running the country, but the first lady has her hands just as full with their 19-year-old son.
Melania Trump, 55, complained about the demands of parenting her adult son, Barron Trump, while promoting her overhyped and undersold documentary Melania, which premieres Thursday.
“You need to be there for a child nonstop, especially when they need you, especially at that age that Baron is,” Melania told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo on Thursday morning.
A known mama’s boy, Barron is a legal adult midway through his sophomore year at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
But he hasn’t exactly flown the nest. Barron reportedly ditched his Manhattan campus in September, opting instead to move back in with his parents and attend classes at NYU’s D.C. Academic Center.
During her appearance on Mornings With Maria, the first lady noted that her only son has become more involved in his 79-year-old father’s politics during Trump’s second term than he was during the first, which began when Barron was just 10.
“He understands politics, he gives advice to his father. We talk about it so differently,” Melania said.
Like his mother, Barron remains an elusive figure. He has no social media presence, reportedly kept to himself during his freshman year, and is said to be single.
Still, his Mother-in-Chief hasn’t been fully on top of her game. Barron made headlines earlier this month after a Russian man was convicted of assaulting his then-girlfriend in London—with Barron emerging as a key witness.
Just two days prior to Trump’s second inauguration, Barron made a panicked call to London police, where he said he witnessed the attack over a video call.
The NYU student told a City of London Police operator that “a girl” he knew was “getting beat up.”
In an email to investigators in May 2025, Barron said a “shirtless man with darkish hair”—later identified as Matvei Rumiantsev, 22—answered a video call from the woman’s phone for “maybe one second.”
He said the view then switched to the woman “getting hit while crying” during a five- to seven-second window. Rumiantsev admitted in evidence that he was “jealous to some extent” of Barron and complained that she was “frankly leading him [Barron] on.”
Weeks before Barron’s hero moment became public, the first son was under fire after being linked to a close associate of misogynist internet influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who face human trafficking charges brought by multiple women in multiple countries. The Tates deny any wrongdoing.
Melania appears undeterred by her son’s alleged proximity to controversy.
“[Melania] has a wonderful son that she loves probably more than anybody, including me—I hate to say it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in August.
The mother-son duo is expected to feature prominently throughout Melania, the Amazon MGM documentary set to screen at the Kennedy Center.
The film, which chronicles Trump’s 20 days leading up to becoming first lady once again, will be released Friday—reportedly in 2,000 theaters in the U.S. and 3,000 internationally. But sales at several U.S. locations appear weak, based on screenshots of showtimes displaying largely empty seating.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Melania Trump’s representatives for comment.
