PNA2 - Page 2 - Patriot News Alerts

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday returning the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, Breitbart reported. The president had previously hinted at this move, which would restore the original name for the agency to convey more about the mission.

Trump had signaled this could happen in earlier discussions and had referred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as his "secretary of war." The new order directs Hegseth to make the necessary moves to make the name change permanent through not only the executive office, but also the legislative process as needed.

It will also apply the change to signage, letterhead, and other public mentions of what will now be the U.S. Department of War. One of those changes includes a briefing room becoming the "Pentagon War Annex" over its previously defanged "public affairs briefing room."

The move is meant to restore both the name and the original purpose of the agency, as Trump explained in remarks in August. "Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was the Department of War. Then we changed it to Department of Defense," Trump noted.

Restoring Strength

Hegseth hinted at the change in a recent Fox & Friends interview on Fox News, explaining that it's a mindset shift as much as it is a renaming. "We won WWI, and we won WWII, not with the Department of Defense, but with a War Department, with the Department of War," Hegseth said.

"As the president has said, we’re not just defense, we’re offense. We’ve reestablished at the Department the warrior ethos. We want warriors, folks that understand how to exact lethality on the enemy," Hegseth continued.

"We don’t want endless contingencies and just playing defense. We think words and names and titles matter. So, we’re working with the White House and the president on it. Stand by," he promised last week.

The Department of War existed until 1949, when changes were made in response to the National Security Act of 1947, which changed the agency's moniker to the more vague and non-threatening Department of Defense. It remains to be seen whether Trump will need congressional approval for the name change, but the president believes he has the authority to make it happen.

"We're just going to do it. I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't think we even need that," Trump said on Aug. 25.

The Change

After much speculation and several hints from the administration, Trump signed off on the order, which is his 200th since taking office. The move was celebrated by several conservatives, including Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk, who shared video of the historic moment on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.

"For his 200th official executive action as 47, President Trump officially restores the original name 'Department of War' to the Department of Defense. Pete Hegseth will now be referred to as the Secretary of War," Kirk captioned the post.

While the left will likely attempt to trivialize this, the renaming is in line with Trump's effort to return America and its institutions to prominence. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order Restoring Names That Honor America's Greatness to "promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes."

Trump's latest move sends the message that the U.S. will once again celebrate its history and legacy of great strength in war. The president is right that the offensive stance is vital to retain not only in the new name for the Department of Defense, but also in its mission if the U.S. hopes to remain a world superpower.

Speaking independently of each other, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla both said this week that President Donald Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed, the program that distributed COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. and globally in 2020.

“President Trump deserves a Nobel Prize for Operation Warp Speed,” Cassidy said in a Wednesday statement on X.

“Operation Warp Speed restored consumer confidence, saved over $1 trillion in health care costs due to reductions in serious illness and avoidance of hospitalizations, and rapidly scaled up domestic production,” Bourla wrote a few hours earlier.

“This American leadership also delivered a new platform that may drive significant innovation in cancer research. Such an accomplishment would typically be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, given its significant impact,” he added.

Good or bad?

Bourla credited Trump with saving 14 million people's lives around the world with Operation Warp Speed, which involved a partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

Now that some time has passed, however, and complications of the vaccines have come to light, the current Trump administration is distancing itself from the vaccines.

“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!” the president said in a Labor Day post on Truth Social.

He'd like one

Trump has mentioned several times that he thinks he deserves a Nobel Prize, though not for the same reason Bourla and Cassidy mentioned.

Pakistan said he should get one for defusing tensions between it and India in May 2025, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he should get one for the crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. in recent weeks.

Given the proclivities of the Nobel Committee, however, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to bestow an award on Trump.

Of course, Democrats would be beside themselves if Trump got a Nobel Prize, which is probably part of the reason he wants one so much.

Instead, it's all about the honor and recognition that he did something that changed the world for the better, instead of more allegations that he's harming it.

For once, a federal appeals court has sided with President Donald Trump in his efforts to claw back taxpayer dollars sent to leftist groups.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals approved the plan for EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to rescind $16 billion appropriated by former President Joe Biden in his lame duck days for basically a "slush fund" for "green" climate projects, reversing a lower court block on the action.

Zeldin first announced the freeze on $20 billion back in February, and it was immediately challenged by the groups who would have benefitted from the funds.

At the time, Zeldin compared Biden's appropriation to “throwing gold bars off the Titanic” and said there wasn't enough oversight on how the money would be spent.

More accountability required

“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin said. “The American public deserves a more transparent and accountable government than what transpired these past four years.”

After the lower court said Zeldin had not given enough substantiation of his allegations against the nonprofits, the appeals court ruled 2-1 that Zeldin could terminate the grants and contracts.

The court also said that the nonprofits had no standing to challenge the termination of contracts, and that their arguments needed to go before a federal claims court that specifically hears contract disputes.

If the nonprofits take their claims to that court, there's still a chance that Zeldin could be forced to honor the contracts.

This was considered a loss for the groups, who were seeking immediate access to the money.

More appeals?

Another path the groups could take is to appeal the D.C. court's decision to the Supreme Court, but there's no guarantee the high court will even take the case.

The D.C. appeals court is by no means conservative, so its ruling cannot be seen as partisan.

While Trump is not necessarily against green energy, he doesn't think the federal government should be subsidizing it and propping it up to try to reduce fossil fuel use.

With $37 trillion in debt and counting, there's no way we need to be giving billions more to green energy groups.

President Donald Trump said during an interview with The Daily Caller's Reagan Reese that he would consider reopening asylums for people with severe mental illness, asserting that society "can't have these people walking around."

Reese was asking Trump about his crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., part of which involved dealing with mentally ill homeless people who have become a fixture on D.C. streets.

"Would you be open to the government reopening insane asylums for people with serious mental illness?" Reese asked him.

More details

Trump continued, “Well, they used to have them, and you never saw people like we had, you know, they used to have them. And what happened is states like New York and California that had them, New York had a lot of them. They released them all into society because they couldn’t afford it.

“You know, it’s massively expensive. But we had, they were all over New York. I remember when I was growing up, Creedmoor. They had a place, Creedmoor, they had a lot of them, Bellevue, and they were closed by a certain governor."

“It’s a rough situation," he concluded, "because you can't have these people walking around."

Mental illness is a significant factor in homelessness, because people with severe mental illness can't hold down a job and often have a deep mistrust of authority figures, banks, and other fixtures of modern society.

"Crime-free zone"

Part of Trump's D.C. crime crackdown has involved emptying homeless encampments, offering those living in the makeshift dwellings shelters they can go to where they will receive food, a place to sleep, and services they need to become functional members of society again.

This will surely include mental health treatment for many of them, as well as substance abuse treatment, career counseling, job opportunities, and life skills education.

Trump is touting the success of his D.C. crackdown, calling the nation's capital a "crime-free zone."

“I mean, I knew we’re going to do it, but it went faster than I thought… Now, in two weeks, it’s going to be even better. I’m calling it, it’s a crime free zone now,” he continued. “People are going to restaurants that haven’t gone out in four years. They didn’t even want to go in their car because they get the you know, they have..,you see, the carjacking is down 87 percent.”

Even D.C.'s Democrat Mayor, Muriel Bowser, is lauding the efforts of the federal law enforcement in her city after initially resisting them.

“We greatly appreciate the surge of officers that enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city,” she said at a press conference last week.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) signed an executive order on Saturday that ordered city police not to cooperate with federal agents or military troops amid a supposedly imminent crackdown on crime there similar to the one going on in Washington, D.C.

“We do not have the luxury of time,” Johnson said during a press conference that included other city leaders.

“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government. It is unclear at this time what that will look like exactly.”

The order was meant to show city employees and residents “how we can stand up against this tyranny," he continued.

The details

Police were ordered to be in uniform, identify themselves, follow body cam procedures, and not to wear face masks, which would set them apart from federal agents.

They were also ordered to enforce all local laws, even if federal agents said something different.

The order "urges" federal agents to also not wear masks and to follow local laws, and aims to prohibit the deployment of any military to the area.

"Next"

Trump had threatened on social media that Chicago was "next" for a federal crackdown including immigration raids and federalization of police if the local officials couldn't get crime under control.

His actions in D.C. have been successful as far as dropping the crime rate, but it's too soon to tell whether those improvements will last after the feds leave.

The White House responded to Johnson's press conference, calling it a "publicity stunt" and urging city officials to handle the crime problem themselves, if they were able.

“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Border czar Tom Homan has said that other sanctuary cities including New York, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle could have ICE agents deployed there if crime rates continue.

President Donald Trump’s administration has wasted little time in seeking workforce reductions and wholesale change at a host of federal agencies, and that push shows no signs of slowing down, despite ongoing legal challenges.

Last week, in an effort to clean house at what the president views as an outlet overtaken by ideological bias in recent years, Kari Lake, the individual tasked with winding down operations at Voice of America (VOA) and other entities overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), issued termination notices to 532 remaining employees, as Politico reports.

Lake takes action

The news of the terminations came from Lake herself in a post on the X social media network.

Lake began by stating, “Tonight, the U.S. Agency for Global Media initiated what is known as a reduction in force, or RIF, of a large number of its full-time federal employees.”

She continued, “We are conducting this RIF at the President’s direction to help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.”

The move comes in the wake of a March decision placing almost all VOA staffers on administrative leave.

That determination was made in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s issuance of an executive order from the White House calling for the full dismantling of USAGM, which in itself prompted the majority of VOA’s broadcast funnels to go dormant, with roughly 600 VOA contractors also receiving firing notices in May.

Legal challenges persist

Despite Lake’s sweeping Friday announcement, it appears likely that the move will face a legal challenge, a scenario with which the administration is familiar as it attempts to continue its slimming of the federal workforce.

Earlier in the week, the White House suffered something of a defeat in its quest to bring a final end to VOA’s operations, when a federal judge stepped in to halt the administration’s attempted removal of Michael Abramowitz as director of the broadcast enterprise.

As the Associated Press notes, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Abramowitz’s removal cannot proceed without approval from a majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.

In Lamberth’s opinion, any firing in the absence of board approval would be “plainly contrary to law.”

Trump, in Lamberth’s opinion, simply lacks unilateral authority to fire VOA’s director.

Broadcaster's future hangs in balance

The federally funded broadcasting outfit was launched during World War II, and its mission has been described as providing reliable, objective news to populations living in parts of the world where press freedom is lacking.

While critics of the Trump administration’s recent moves have expressed concern that the cuts jeopardize that overarching goal, Lake herself assured, “USAGM will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this [reduction in force] -- and will likely improve its ability to function and provide truth to people across the world who live under murderous Communist governments and other tyrannical regimes.” Whether that prediction is borne out, only time will tell.

President Donald Trump's nearly $5 billion "pocket rescissions" of a foreign aid package is legally sound, a White House official said Friday, according to Breitbart. Trump signed the rescissions drafted under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which allows the president to cancel funding that has been legally passed by Congress.

A president hasn't used this provision in nearly half a century, but Trump is serious about getting spending under control. Much of what was cut were wasteful projects for foreign nations, which adds insult to injury as the bloated federal budget continues to increase. Trump has chosen a route to cut spending that does not require Congressional approval.

"I herewith report 15 rescissions of budget authority, totaling $4.9 billion," Trump wrote in the letter Thursday, which accompanied a list of the projects being cut. The signed letter was shared to X, formerly Twitter, by Eric Daugherty. "BREAKING: President Trump cancels nearly $5 billion in wasteful FOREIGN AID at USAID and the State Department via a pocket recission. Let's go," Daugherty captioned it.

Official Weighs In

During a press call on Thursday, the White House official shared what was on the chopping block. "Just to give you a rundown of some of the things that this would defund: $3.2 billion for USAID development assistance–has funded things like $400 million for climate– global climate projects, building a greenhouse gas calculator, promoting vegan food in Zambia, electric buses in Rwanda, research on feeding insect powders to children in Madagascar, $22 billion for the gender equality and women’s empowerment hub," the official told the reporters on the call.

"There’s a number of provisions in the law set by Congress that are what we would call earmarks that we’re now at a point in the fiscal season where we don’t have an ability to spend outside of these other than to not spend them. There’s nothing that we can do within these accounts, because of the way they’re written, to shift them to things that the president would support in the foreign aid space," the official added.

"And just to give you an example of some of these things: $340 million for global climate adaptation, clean energy, sustainable landscapes; $297 million for foreign biodiversity programs; $40 million for development initiative ventures; $3 million to unionize workers in Bangladesh," the White House official mentioned. A pocket recission doesn't require Congressional approval, and the funding simply expires at the end of the year.

In July, Trump sent a rescissions package through Congress, which lawmakers approved. “What is different about this versus the earlier package is that it is a pocket rescission. This is not something where we submit a rescission and we’re expecting Congress to vote," the official clarified.

“This is a unique aspect of the Impoundment Control Act, where it looks the same as a rescission package, but the fact that it’s at the end of the fiscal year, within 45 days of the fiscal year, by virtue of you sending it up, it will automatically sunset at the end of the fiscal year," the White House official told reporters. "This is something that we’ve begun to send up to the Hill. We’ll continue those conversations with the legislators. But this is something that does not need a vote…these savings will automatically accrue to taxpayers at the end of the fiscal year,” the official continued.

Legal Justification

The official went on to explain that Trump's use of the law was on "firm legal ground" and that the General Accounting Office had previously approved of the move. "We’re not obviously big fans of the General Accounting Office...but we have been encouraged by Congress to use the Impoundment Control Act to send up rescissions, in this case, a pocket rescission–the General Accounting Office said that this was a legal path," the official noted.

"They weren’t wild about it, but they said Congress should consider closing this path off because future presidents would use it, and then when there were more than one opportunity where this was specifically the type of bill that would be used for GAO’s recommendation to be put into law and Congress chose not to do this. So GAO has now changed their position," the White House official went on about the partisanship in the agency.

"As you probably can tell, GAO changes their position with every administration. If there are Republicans in office, they decide against us on every single question that they consider, and if a Democrat is in office, they take the exact opposite position. They’re like the wind. So we are on very firm legal footing, and we will be making that case, and I think the courts, if they do consider this, will decide along the lines of what we’ve articulated," the official said.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing the narrative that Republicans are gunning for a government shutdown. "That is not true. This, in some respects, we believe will help with those members who are not normally accustomed or willing to vote for a continuing resolution that will, in fact, keep the government open. So we believe this is in no way contributing to the argument put out there by Democrats that this will lead to a government shutdown."

Too much of taxpayer money has been sent to foreign nations for frivolous projects, and Trump is ending that. The Democrats don't like it because it is popular with voters and lays bare their fiscal irresponsibility for all to see.

The Department of Homeland Security has canceled thousands of contracts through the Federal Emergency Management Agency after watchdog groups found billions of dollars in fraud and waste, the Daily Caller reported in an exclusive. This move comes under the direction of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, following years of agency failures.

Some of the most egregious examples include nearly $10.7 million allocated to contracted media marketing for the Ready Campaign, as well as an additional $3.3 million funded to FEMA's internal marketing department, which was intended to encourage employees to complete an internal survey. Meanwhile, FEMA spent $645,000 on hosting meetings that had as few as 15 attendees and lasted just an hour.

An additional $1.6 million was wasted on setting up a pair of routine workshops, and $1.27 million was allocated for a "conference center concierge" to provide basic services, including preparing meeting rooms and reserving audio equipment. Within the Employee Relations Branch, FEMA contracted a company to shred documents and file paperwork for $594,000 and paid another $500,000 for social media recruiting.

Latosha G. who was paid for her endorsement as part of the half-million-dollar effort, boasted online about the process. "I applied that night, and I actually got a call the next day to do an interview. And I actually ended up getting a job as a local hire. A position came open as a data management specialist. I applied, I actually got an interview, and I actually got the position," Latosha added.

Troubling Pattern

The flagrant waste uncovered by DHS's inspector general and the Government Accountability Office is part of a troubling pattern within the agency. Both entities have been attempting to bring FEMA's spending under control by curbing excessive spending and promoting proper stewardship of its budget allocation, but has met extreme resistance.

"Any American who opened the books at FEMA and saw their lackluster spending controls and policies would be horrified. Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been an extraordinary leader, bringing spending best practices, fiscal responsibility, and mission alignment to an agency that has run amok for far too long," a FEMA spokesperson said.

President Donald Trump's administration has attempted to rectify some of these issues, including monthly check-ins with disaster survivors to monitor progress toward "realistic" and "achievable" housing goals based on their living standards prior to the disaster that left them homeless. Predictably, FEMA leadership is reluctant to relinquish control over the purse strings and continues its wasteful spending.

That was quite evident during Noem's confirmation hearing when Cameron Hamilton, who was acting FEMA administrator at the time, dug in his heels when questions about the agency's spending habits came up. He was gone from the agency just days later, and David Richard was tapped to replace him.

It's not just that the agency wasted taxpayer dollars in the course of its bureaucratic business. FEMA leaders did this while also, at times, abandoning the very mission for which they were given that money: disaster relief.

Dropping the Ball

The agency arguably exists primarily to deploy federal help in times of natural and other disasters. Unfortunately, a 2022 inspector general's report revealed that FEMA also struggled to deliver aid to affected Americans in the aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma.

The agency lost nearly 40% of the supplies sent to Puerto Rico and failed to distribute funds to those impacted by the storm's devastation for several years. In 2024, a video emerged that purportedly showed pallets full of bottled water kept locked in a 43,000 square foot warehouse after Maria made landfall on the island nation in September 2017. It caused outraged after it was widely shared to social media.

These palletts of water were just a portion of the $257 million in supplies that went missing while people on the island went without clean water. FEMA also gave $156 million to a sole proprietor who promised to provide 30 million meals to hungry islanders. Shockingly, only 50,000 were ever distributed.

Government waste is always outrageous, but FEMA has taken it to a new level by doing so while disaster-affected Americans waited for relief that would never come. Noem is right to clean house and cancel contracts until the agency is running as it should be and helping those in need.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to expand the student visa program for Chinese nationals, a policy some say is problematic and a significant departure from his stated agenda, according to Just the News. White House officials were blindsided when officials in the Trump administration considered revoking these visas due to national security concerns.

On Monday, Trump announced plans to import 600,000 students from China to attend America's colleges and universities. Trump believes this is an integral part of brokering a deal to end the tariff war between China and the U.S. and has floated a possible meeting with the nation's leader.

"I’d like to meet him this year. President Xi [Jinping] would like me to come to China. We’re taking a lot of money in from China because of the tariffs and different things.… It’s a much better relationship economically than it was before with [former President Joe] Biden," Trump told reporters.

"I mean, they just took him to the cleaners. We’re going to allow it, it’s very important, 600,000 students. We’re going to get along with China. But it’s a different relationship that we have now with China," Trump added.

Imminent Threat

It's surprising to hear Trump speak about broadening the program and importing more people from China, considering the growing threat it poses. Allowing Chinese nationals to come to the U.S. to study opens up numerous vulnerabilities, including intellectual property theft, economic espionage, and government infiltration.

Lawmakers have been sounding alarm bells that the Chinese Communist Party is the top concern for these attacks, and it's more than just theoretical. According to the House Committee on Homeland Security, at least 224 cases of espionage and other CCP activity occurred between 2000 and 2023, with 60 of those were found across 20 states during then-President Joe Biden's administration.

The way they go about it is also problematic in light of Trump's plan to import 600,000 students. "China continues to utilize ‘non-traditional’ collectors to conduct a plurality of their nefarious efforts here in the U.S. due to their successful ability to hide in plain sight," said former Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center Bill Evanina in 2023.

"The non-traditional collectors, serving as engineers, businesspersons, academics, and students, are shrouded in legitimate work and research, and oftentimes become unwitting tools for the CCP and its intelligence apparatus," he added during his testimony at the time. Furthermore, the communist nation codified spying into state law in 2017, mandating that citizens called on by the government to conduct espionage must do so.

Even Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said just last month that the State Department needed to "aggressively" revoke student visas from Chinese nationals "with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields," he said in a State Department statement. Rubio also recommended the government "revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong."

Opposing Trump's Agenda

It appears that the consensus is that the U.S. should proceed with caution in granting these student visas, let alone expanding them. Moreover, Trump ran on an "America First" agenda during his 2024 campaign, which leaves many to wonder how importing more than half a million students from a communist country serves that end.

This has caused friction with even the most steadfast of Trump supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). "We should not let in 600,000 CHINESE students to attend American colleges and universities that may be loyal to the CCP," Greene said on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday. "Why are we allowing 600,000 students from China to replace our American student's opportunities? We should never allow that," she added.

Fox News's Laura Ingraham posed the same question to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. "The president’s point of view is that what would happen if you didn’t have those 600K students is that you’d empty them from the top, all the students would go up to better schools, and the bottom 15% of universities and colleges would go out of business in America. "He’s taking a rational economic view, which is classic Donald Trump," Lutnick claimed on The Ingraham Angle.

This is a very unusual move for Trump, especially given his harsh rhetoric against China for all of these years. Many are panicking that he's somehow pivoted away from his original agenda, but Trump has proven himself to be a master negotiator, and this is likely just another tactic meant to bring his adversary to his side of things.

President Donald Trump boasted that his wife, first lady Melania Trump, is a loving mother who keeps a watchful eye on their son Barron Trump, The Independent reported. Barron is heading into his sophomore year at New York University after his freshman year unfolded during the presidential campaign and the victory of his famous father.

This remark came as part of a discussion about negotiations Trump was working on to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. Following his Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a reporter asked Trump about a letter Melania Trump wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the toll the war has taken on children.

That's when the president shared about his wife's "great love of children" that motivates her. "She’s got a great love of children, she has a wonderful son that she loves probably more than anybody, including me, I hate to say it," Donald Trump said of his wife, Melania Trump. "But she loves her son, she loves children, and she hates to see something like this happening."

Watchful eye

Rumors swirl around Barron as Melania Trump is notoriously protective of her family, especially her only son. A source close to the matter told People last year that she chose to keep Barron out of on-campus housing so she could keep an eye on him as he settled into his freshman year.

"She will do everything she can to make sure Barron does well in school and is socially and mentally adjusted to his life as a college student," the unnamed source claimed. The person said that it wasn't "in the stars" for Barron to live in a dorm "at this point."

The first lady became particularly concerned after Trump was re-elected last November and was worried about what impact that would have on Barron's life and safety. "Melania worries about the hate in the country and how it falls on her son, who is innocent of any of this," a source said.

"She is and has been a good sounding board for him. They talk about life as it is and how they are in the spotlight," the source added about Melania Trump. Barron also has his older siblings to look up to, including his half-brothers Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who have been instrumental in their father's business and political aspirations.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump has kept her inner circle tight and relied heavily on her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, to provide love and guidance to Barron. Although it has been a blessing, the death of Melania Trump's mother in January 2024 was difficult for her, considering their close relationship. "Melania’s most meaningful moments of life have been with her family, and Barron is the lucky benefactor of that love and caring," the source noted.

Barron's emergence

Barron was kept out of the public eye and given a chance just to be a kid when his father first became president in 2016. With four more years to grow up, Barron emerged as a small but important part of his father's campaign this time around, even as Melania Trump did her best to shield Barron.

During his father's presidential campaign, the younger Trump became more involved and played a crucial role in helping his father cross the finish line. According to Fox News, Donald Trump said his son was the one who told him to appeal to the Gen Z voters by going on the right podcasts, including Joe Rogan which may have marked a turning point.

"[He's influenced me] a little bit," he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox News last fall. "He tells me about all the ‘hot’ guys, people I've never heard of [for podcasts]… but Don [Jr.] knows a lot about it and Eric knows a lot about it. Tiffany knows a lot. Ivanka knows a lot," Donald Trump continued about his daughters.

In June, Barron made his first appearance at one of his father's rallies and received a standing ovation from the crowd, according to The New York Post. He would go on to cast his first-ever vote as an 18-year-old in November, and it appears Barron could be on his way to emerging as another arrow in Donald Trump's political quiver.

Melania Trump has done a great job raising her son out of the spotlight and still watches over him as he spreads his wings as a college student. She clearly has a great love for her Barron and continues to hold her family close in the midst of the chaos of the White House, and that's admirable.