Barron Trump is just a kid. The youngest child of President Donald Trump has been shielded from the public since long before his father became president, and the press has understandably steered clear of probing too deeply into the teenager's life. As a result, we don’t know much about Barron, except that he is a really tall 14-year-old. But, a lack of concrete details hasn't prevented TikTok teens from speculating about their peer. Some of the most popular made-up narratives? He watches anime. He plays Roblox. He likes K-Pop. His dad doesn’t allow him to play sports. All of these theories might come in handy, as some TikTokers prepare to lead a rescue mission to save Barron Trump from the White House. (No, really.)
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After a rumour went viral about Barron allegedly being on Roblox, an online video game, Gen Z became hellbent on "saving Barron," who allegedly used a Roblox account with the handle “JumpyTurtlee.” (There is no evidence this account belongs to him.)
Despite the fact that there isn't any real reason to think the rumored Roblox account is Barron's, thousands of young TikTokers were still inspired to create a narrative of Barron as an LGBTQ+ ally, who is “most likely a democrat.” One account noted, he “only has 2 friends” and eats the same lunch everyday. “He’s just like us,” the narrative goes, except that he is also stuck in the White House. “I jus know he aint the same as his father,” one user wrote. Some videos zoomed in on a compilation of photos of Barron, while sad music played.
Since the dawning of this meme, the hashtag #saveBarron has garnered more than 50 million views, and TikTok users continued to make videos about why they should save him and how they plan on taking action.
One user laid out an elaborate plan in several steps that included bringing self-tanner into the White House to distract the president, and leaf blowers would be harnessed to mess up his hair — all in an effort to save Barron.
The meme also quickly made its way to Twitter where people joked about the various ways they planned to distract the White House guards and the CIA “while the others save Barron.” A petition to save the youngest Trump also circulated on Twitter and garnered more than 15,000 signatures on Wednesday morning before it was taken down. After realising how viral the trend became online, one TikTok user wrote, “let’s just hope Trump doesn’t find out we are trying to take his son.”
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Barron has long been a meme of the Trump presidency, sometimes appearing bored or annoyed while attending political events. A less-than-enthusiastic Barron riding in the Trump limousine on Inauguration Day made the rounds for a moment; it's now making its comeback with the “save Barron” videos.
The youngest Trump was also once the subject of a story titled, “Barron at Trump Tower” published in the now-defunct website, The Hairpin. Conceived of as a “book for precocious liberals,” the story was told from the perspective of then-10-year-old Barron who lives at Trump Tower and spends a lot of time staring at its gold lobby. “Sometimes the gold hurts my eyes and I need to go back upstairs and lie down,” the story goes. “When I get sad I tell Melania and she pats me on the head and gives me a piece of hard candy.”
There’s no word from the White House in response to the meme, and Barron appears to be perfectly safe and in good health. And considering how the president spends countless hours online tweeting at and about his political enemies, it's probably for the best that he never finds out about this at all.