Leave Barron Trump Alone

By Jordan Owen
(c)2017

L-R: Barron, Donald and Melania Trump

Things are going to get ugly.  They need to get ugly.  Donald Trump is taking our country in an ugly direction and he needs to be called out every step of the way.  In the course of that calling out it is necessary, as it is with any politician, to use withering satire to point out when the emperor has no clothes and help ourselves cope with the wildly errant shift in public policy.  As such, there should be no avenue left unexplored in the ongoing push to harangue and criticize those who hold the levers of power.

Except one.

We must never allow the child age children of elected officials become targets of our ire and rebuke.  They are innocent and did not choose who their parents would be or the situation they would be born into.  Such a line, which should seem intuitively uncrossable, was trespassed in a most heinous and deplorable manner by Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich who on election day attacked Donald Trump’s youngest son by tweeting “Barron will be our country’s first homeschool shooter.”  Already calls for Rich to be fired from Saturday Night Live have flooded social media.  I don’t know if I agree with that but I won’t be surprised if it’s ultimately what happens.

Child shooters are a dark and troubling crisis point in American culture.  They represent a malignant streak of violence that slices down the middle of such controversial and difficult issues as gun control, mental illness, and early adolescent development.  While the topic itself is, like all concepts, open to satire and comedy, the leveling of the accusation against an actual child for no other reason than petty vindictiveness represents a particularly heinous level of callous disregard.  It should never be leveled at any child unless they pose a legitimate threat and then the accusation should only be raised in the context of getting them help.

Don’t get me wrong- Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric are all fair game- they’re adults and they choose to make themselves a part of their father’s legacy.  They are as open to criticism as any of the new President’s other associates.  But to bring a totally innocent 10 year old child into the discussion with such a vile insult is not merely an act of punching down but a confession of darkness in one’s very soul.

Katie Rich is not alone in her invoking of Barron as a cypher for her hateful nature.  Los Angeles based cartoonist Brian McGovern has launched an ongoing series of one-panel comics called “Lil Barron” that attempt to mock Donald Trump by portraying Barron as the victim of abuse and neglect for comedic effect.  The header on the comic’s Tumblr page reads a fictional boy who lives a lonely life in the cold, loveless shadow of his evil billionaire father. ANY resemblance to Barron Trump, a real boy who lives a lonely life in the cold, loveless shadow of his evil billionaire father is purely coincidental.  One comic panel shows Barron at an empty table dinner table saying “when it’s the cook’s day off, I don’t eat.” Another panel finds him next to a computer flowchart where he laments that “‘failing pile of garbage’ used to be my special nickname.”  While there can be no doubt Barron’s relationship to his father is augmented wildly by his father’s public reputation and professional standing, it is important to remember that this is still Barron’s dad and the only one he gets.  I don’t like Donald Trump.  I don’t think he is a good person or a competent leader- but I have absolutely no reason to think that he abuses and mistreats his son simply because I don’t like him.

The relationship of parent to child is a unique one and even a cold, calculating bastard can be a loving and supportive parent.  So no, Mr. McGovern, you aren’t using Barron as a means to attack his father- you’re using Donald Trump as a justification to attack his son.  And that’s sick.

Since 2012 the left has been fighting against the omnipresent bogeyman that is “online harassment” and has rallied to the defense of fully grown adults who have made often lucrative livings portraying themselves as the victims of internet intimidation campaigns.  That the same leftist media that have, for so long, used accusations of bullying and harassment to silence those who criticize their sacred cows would now do an about face and level a vicious, seething, cackling, utterly gutless bitchfest of hateful, sneering meanness at, of all people, a ten year old child reveals the true hypocrisy of their claims to be fighting for a safe and friendly internet environment.  Katie Rich has disappeared from social media following the negative blowback she’s gotten and if she emerges from her current exile tearfully portraying herself as the victim of a cyber mob of internet harassment she should- in my rampaging opinion- lose US citizenship because at that point she’ll be the worst American citizen since Timothy McVeigh.

In the midst of an outpouring of hate mongering trash from a media landscape that wouldn’t know integrity if it bit them on the ass, it truly warmed my heart to see one news story on Barron that deserves to be applauded and commended: US Weekly showed a video of President Trump beginning his duties as President with his family surrounding him.  Barron is seen in the background playing peekaboo with Ivanka’s baby.  It is a pure, simple, and heartwarming moment- one that should give us pause but also hope.  If Barron were the tiny monster and budding sociopath he’s often portrayed as he wouldn’t have had such a moment of genuine, human connection with a baby.  Until I have reason to think otherwise, this is what I will think of when I think of Barron Trump and I think it is a moment and a person that we as Americans ought to cherish.  It shows, with elegance and unexpected candor, that there is at least one light of pure human decency and love in the Trump household, something that we who are deeply skeptical of Trump the elder patriarch should carry in our hearts as a beacon of hope going forward.

We are, all of us, stewards of Barron Trump.  Where his adult siblings enjoyed relatively private childhoods and only entered the public eye in earnest when they chose to do so, Barron has been thrust into a uniquely public role which few children- no matter how wealthy their parents- ever encounter.  When I watched the inauguration I found myself catching glances at Barron, near his father, looking down at the crowd of onlookers.  His facial expression was oddly and quietly detached, as though he sought in the multitudes an answer to a question still only formulating in his mind.  It has been suggested that he might be autistic- and even bringing this into the forum of public discussion is uncalled for- but whatever the case, he clearly had little interest in the proceedings at hand.  The world leaders and dignitaries assembled to watch his father’s inauguration were of little interest- what was of greater importance for him was all the vast crowds.  For one who has, no doubt, lived such a sheltered life it must be uniquely captivating to see masses of humanity stretched out to the horizon.

As much as we are watching him, he is also watching us.  Yes, he’s a real life Richie Rich and the luxuries of his life will be the envy of 99.9% of the human race but he is also en route to becoming a man- one that will most likely play a major role in business, politics and other world affairs.  When that day comes do you want him to be person who sees humanity as fundamentally kind and worthy of respect or do you want him to be a deeply aggrieved, vindictive thug with a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind? The choice is largely ours and I hope we can choose well.

Kind Regards,
-Jordan

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