Melania Trump’s “strategic” decision regarding her son Barron was considered a “significant turning point” in shutting down claims of her being anything but supportive of her former president husband.
“Nothing happens by chance with Melania.”
A Christmas family photo of former President Donald Trump and his family caused quite the hubbub, not only for a particular missing member but for the prominence of the rarely-seen teen son, Barron Trump.
Appearing to loom over his father in the image that included some of his half-siblings, their significant others and kids, as well as his grandfather Viktor Knavs, the youngest Trump offspring’s position beside the president while his mother was absent had fueled further speculation of a rift at Mar-a-Lago.
Merry Christmas from the Trump family. pic.twitter.com/mnMPf70lz8
— VAS (@VTount) December 26, 2023
However, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, once senior aide to the former first lady, told the New York Post that the release of the image by Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle represented quite the opposite.
“Melania’s decision to include Barron in this family activity, even if she couldn’t be there herself, might be a significant turning point, potentially fostering a new level of support between Melania and Donald,” the former aide contended.
“Barron’s appearance is truly monumental and shows Donald and Melania are in lockstep with one another,” she added.
While Wolkoff anticipated that the public would be seeing more of the reportedly 6′ 8″ Trump, set to mark his 18th birthday in March, unnamed sources corroborated to the Post that “Guilfoyle would never have posted the photo without permission.”
The absence of son and daughter-in-law Eric and Lara Trump, and their children, did not merit the consideration that absent Melania did. Rarely seen throughout the former president’s third bid for the White House, it had been reported that her absence over the holidays was due to the hospitalization of her mother, Amalija Knavs, who was being cared for in Miami.
That wasn’t to say that the former FLOTUS desired to be caught up in the campaign or the media circus surrounding her husband’s multiple legal battles.
The Irish Times reported in August, “Since leaving the White House, Melania Trump’s world has got smaller. Just how she likes it.”
“Cloistered behind the gates of her three homes, she sticks to a small circle — her son, her elderly parents and a handful of old friends. She visits her hairdressers, consults with Hervé Pierre, her long-time stylist, and sometimes meets her husband for Friday night dinner at their clubs,” the Times added. “But her most ardent pursuit is a personal campaign: helping her son, Barron (17), with his college search.”
Having last been seen gathered with his family at the July 2022 funeral for his father’s first wife, Ivana Trump, Wolkoff speculated of Barron, “I believe we will be seeing more of him now. Nothing happens by chance with Melania.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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