It has long been a general rule of American politics that the family members of elected officials, especially if they are young children or largely stay out of the public eye, are considered "off-limits" to undue media attention, criticisms, and partisan attacks.
That unwritten rule has been ignored by many who despise former President Donald Trump, such as former NBCUniversal senior executive Mike Sington, who recently posted that former first son Barron Trump was now "fair game" following his 18th birthday, Fox News reported.
Sington subsequently deleted the post and offered an explanation -- though not an apology -- amid significant backlash and credible accusations that he has been obsessively fixated on the former president's youngest son for many years.
Newsweek reported that Sington on Wednesday posted to social media a picture of former President Trump and Barron walking together and wrote, "Barron Trump turns 18 today. He's fair game now."
The post was deleted shortly after that when it was flooded with mostly negative replies, the bulk of which pointed out how "creepy" Sington's apparent obsession with Barron was, along with other complaints about the general impropriety of going after a politician's child who typically stays out of the public spotlight and isn't involved in politics at all.
In a statement provided to Newsweek, Sington attempted to explain his post about Barron: "I posted he was 'fair game' now, meaning, as an adult, he's 'fair game' for criticism from the press."
"Someone pointed out to me 'fair game' could mean fair game to be harmed," he added. "I don't wish physical harm on anyone, so I took it down. I listen to the comments and criticism I receive."
That supposed explanation doesn't really stand up, though, as few if any of the notable critiques of Sington's post made any mention of the "fair game" comment potentially provoking "physical harm," but rather were focused on his apparent obsessive -- and seemingly pedophilic, according to some -- fixation on Barron over the years.
Indeed, Twitchy published a lengthy exposé of dozens of Sington's social media posts about Barron Trump that date back to when he was just nine years old in 2016.
That included multiple posts tracking the former first son's birthdays over the years, as if they were a countdown until he reached the age of consent, and at least one post in which Sington, whether jokingly or not, openly expressed his desire that Barron would turn out to be gay.
Many of those posts also included multiple pictures of Barron or heralded the typically rare sightings of the boy who largely lived a private life while his father served in office, further belying the obsessive nature of Sington's posts.
The former media executive also made many posts that included the young first son in his sharply critical and often offensively speculative insults against the former president and first lady.
To be sure, Sington is not alone in having used Barron Trump over the years as a punchline or even a cudgel to attack the former president, as Fox News highlighted a few examples of such from other liberal Trump-haters over the years.
That said, those generally one-off attacks on Trump that mentioned Barron were usually followed by public apologies, which Sington has yet to do, nor did any of those others repeatedly and obsessively post pictures and commentary about Barron several dozen times, as Sington has done.
