June 12, 2017

Melania and Barron — AKA "The Expert" — move into the White House.

Lots of photographs at The Daily Mail.

Included in the group: Melania's parents, the Knavs, who've been living with Melania and Barron at Trump Tower and will be living some of the time at the White House. Imagine being Trump, 70 years old, billionaire and President of the United States, and having a mother-in-law and father-in-law living with you. I assume that a big part of the idea is to have a feeling of family around Melania and Barron. He must be a native speaker of Slovenian.

Yes, I see he has a fidget spinner. I have nothing to say about this toy, which is very popular for some mysterious reason....
As you can see, the fidget spinner is not exactly the most complex of inventions, although it gives a whirring sound while it spins. And fidgeting certainly is not a new human behavior. Find someone who doesn't fidget at all and you've probably found someone who's gotten full-body Botox. Therefore, the fidget spinner's price premium ($15 on Amazon) over other common fidget objects such as pens, pencils, balls and coins probably isn't due to massive research and development costs. Nonetheless, some retailers have made claims that the fidget spinner has health benefits such as easing stress, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). How legitimate are these claims?...
Anyway, it says nothing about Barron that he is playing with something a lot of other people are playing with. The t-shirt is more interesting. Is "The Expert" the name of some show or a character on a show? Did Barron alone chose what he would wear? No one stopped him from wearing that. I assume it invites all sorts of joking about the non-experts Donald Trump is relying on for advice. Maybe it's a deliberate trap. If there's any humor at the expense of the child, it will be condemned.

78 comments:

campy said...

If there's any humor at the expense of the child, it will be condemned.


Only by deplorables.

Rae said...

What a vile caption on the tweet. The hatred expressed for the Trump family says more about the opposition than anything.

Amadeus 48 said...

I thought Barron dressed as mini-me to his father all the time. These pictures leave me speechless! And the Knavses moving into the White House. You'll never guess what happened next! Melania looked beautiful in January 2017. You'll gasp when you see her now!

Thanks, Althouse. for a second there, I thought I might have missed something.

Virgil Hilts said...

How history may remember the moment:
Trump always played the long game. Knowing his prior wives were too old to bear him a child at the needed time, he found and married in 2005 a younger beautiful wife that would allow him to run for and become president with a cute 10-11 year old (boy or girl, either would be adorable). Knowing the venom & bile the child would elicit from the left given progressives' complete lack of ethics and decency, the kid would be the weapon Trump held in reserve (ensconced in the Trump tower silo) until Trump thought the time was right to trigger what later became known as "Plan B." Trump mercilessly deployed the "Expert" on June 11 and in a move few had foreseen, unveiled the weapon wearing a silly t-shirt and tennis shoes rather than the suit and tie to which the press had become accustomed - a move many historians agree helped to enhance the ensuing backlash to the toxicity that shortly followed.

bleh said...

Barron is Trump's expert on computers and cybersecurity. So, so important.

whitney said...

I saw one of those in a client's house and was extremely compelled by it. I picked it up but didn't get it spinning. I know idea what it was but did have a need to find out what it was. It's supposed to focus attention. It certainly focused mine and I did not even use it. I just saw it. Very strange

rhhardin said...

If there's any humor at the expense of the child, it will be condemned.

Womanish feelz.

It's got to be funny, is all.

rhhardin said...

First home-school shooter was good, for instance.

Hagar said...

Barron is Trump's expert on computers and cybersecurity. So, so important.

That may not be a joke. These days, for most of us a grandchild in the house to help us out with the "machines" would be a very good thing.

David Begley said...

Barron is very tall for age 11.

Freder Frederson said...

Wouldn't it be just as, if not more, despicable to use your child as a "trap"?

Dave from Minnesota said...

I received a weird phone poll this weekend. It was quite long and started out normal. But then they asked these questions:
“Do you think it is okay for a Republican senator to body slam a journalist?”
“Do you think Trump is a liar?”
“Who do you think is a bigger liar, Nixon or Trump?”
“Who do you think is more dishonest, Nixon or Trump?”
Click.
My take is that this may or not have been a poll, but that the point of the recorded call was to put those thoughts into peoples heads. That Trump is a dishonest liar. If you can call 100s of thousands of houses and get them to listen to your poll questions.

rhhardin said...

He must be a native speaker of Slovenian.

I've lost track of what the countries are. I see from my computer log that there's Slovenia (S5), Slovakia (OM), Czech Republic (OK) and Serbia (YU).

The next question is what language they speak. Austrian possibly.

Bob Boyd said...

The Expert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

Otto said...

As usual FFLOTUS.First F=foxy

traditionalguy said...

Expert is a Patriarchy secret code. Another grabber apprentice.

Big Mike said...

I think I'd rather have a kid like Barron Trump in my family tree than someone like Caroline Biden.

Dave from Minnesota said...

I wonder if Linwood Kaine is going to do any jail time for his assault and battery charges.

Freder Frederson said...

That Trump is a dishonest liar.

This is a demonstrable fact. He lies effortlessly. Heck, even the $100 billion seems deal with the Saudis was a lie.

Sebastian said...

The expert on gratuitous vilification of his family for political purposes, getting a clear view of the real nature of US progs with their rape and decapitation fantasies.

Dude1394 said...

Making jokes about baron is disgusting. Absolutely disgusting, democrats should be ashamed.

Ann Althouse said...

"Wouldn't it be just as, if not more, despicable to use your child as a "trap"?"

It's what you could call "child protection services."

Remember when Bill Clinton walked to the helicopter with Chelsea (and Hillary)?

It's like the way a criminal grabs a child as a shield.

I say: No children in the White House. The country can't afford to have a shielded President. Leave the kids out of this. The White House is not a good place for a child to grow up.

And an 11-year-old boy is not a cute kid, especially when you've got a 4 year term. This boy is embarking on the most turbulent stage of his life.

A cute boy would be JFK Jr. in his White House days. He was much younger. We haven't had a boy in the White House since his time. This is something completely new. We've had these pairs of girls. What we have now is basically completely new.

MadisonMan said...

What a vile caption on the tweet. The hatred expressed for the Trump family says more about the opposition than anything.

Agreed. They should have stopped with the first sentence, which alone would have been funny.

AllenS said...

Chelsea Clinton was only 13 when father BJ was president, and she turned out... ah, ... oh, forget it.

traditionalguy said...

Ivanka is working for no salary today, like her husband and father do.

Eight years should save us many millions at that payroll.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yeah - the Clinton marriage is the real deal.

rhhardin said...

This boy is embarking on the most turbulent stage of his life.

Needs girls.

h said...

Regarding the push-poll reported by Dave from Minnesota: I think we get the same kind of thing on news interviews: "Have you seen conclusive evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians?" "No." "I see, No, not yet."

How I wish that someone would ask Comey, or Rep. Schiff, or Sen. Schumer, "Based on what you have seen so far, is there any conclusive evidence of collusion between the Clinton campaign and the Russian government? ... I see, so the matter is still under investigation?"

William said...

His daddy's rich and his mamma's good looking and it's summertime. There are children with more cause to cry in the night and more in need of lullabies.......His childhood will be more complicated than that of other children, but my guess is that things will work out ok.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Wow, that kid is so beautiful.

tcrosse said...


Needs girls.

Dad could help.

Kate said...

A child wearing a T-shirt with "The Expert" can lead to many witticisms that don't have to be mean-spirited. This country was funnier when it had better manners.

DanTheMan said...

>>Barron is Trump's expert on computers and cybersecurity.

He's better than Hillary's IT team, I suspect.

Bruce Hayden said...

"Barron is very tall for age 11."

Look at the height of his parents. I am reminded here how tall his mother is.

MadisonMan said...

A child wearing a T-shirt with "The Expert" can lead to many witticisms

Exactly. Every single parent has lived through the kid-knows-it-all-phase that starts around 11 or 12 and can relate.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ BDNYC

Barron is Trump's expert on computers and cybersecurity. So, so important.

He is probably much better than Hillary's experts.

southcentralpa said...

Well, at least his t-shirt didn't say "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"

Jersey Fled said...

Wait a minute. Didn't the press tell us that Melania and Barron would never move to the White House shortly after the election? Hard to believe they could have been wrong about that.

traditionalguy said...

Just keep the kid away from Comet Pizza.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The kid's destiny may be to be the ultimate bad boy hearthrob for a generation of women, especially if his father goes the whole 8 years.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I feel bad for Barron. Not only is it hard to be a pre pubescent young man who is much taller than normal and looks older than his age, he is going to have to endure the next 3 or 8 years in the public eye. A media that hates Trump and will spew its venom all over an innocent child (he is only 11 for God's sake!!!) and who is a growing young man.

All the things that young people need to deal with. Body changes, attractions to boys or girls, trying to get some independence from your parents. I'm sure all of youse guys remember these painful awkward years. I do!!

Now throw in your father being the President and your every single move being scrutinized by people who want to harm you and ridicule you publicly.

tolkein said...

To rhhardin

Slovenia is to the southwest of modern Austria, having been a constituent state of Yugoslavia (1918-1991), a Habsburg possession from around 1335. Slovakia, is to the north of Hungary, of which it had been a part since the tenth century. Slovakia should not be confused with Slavonia or Moravian Slovakia.

I hope all this is clear now.

None has any relation to Serbia, apart from closeness geographically. Serbia (a) is Orthodox and, (b) uses Cyrillic, not Latin script. Serbs and Croats (Catholics. Croatia was known as the rampart of Christendom due to its frontline role against the Ottomans. Which were Turks and, therefore, not friends of Christian Europe. Unless you were the Most Christian King of France, in which case they were as they were the opponents of your opponent, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor).

They are unlikely to speak Austrian, which is not a distinct language anyway. People in Austria speak HochDeutsch, a dialect of German. If some people in these countries spoke German it was because they were the rulers or part of the ruling and associated classes.

Gahrie said...

Imagine being Trump, 70 years old, billionaire and President of the United States, and having a mother-in-law and father-in-law living with you.

IIRC, Michelle's mother lived in the White House all eight years. Nobody seemed to think that was odd.

Michael K said...

I think I'd rather have a kid like Barron Trump in my family tree than someone like Caroline Biden.

Has anyone else besides you and me noticed how many Democrat politicians' kids are fucked up ?

Biden's, Kaines, the Kennedys, I'm waiting for the first Obama girls' scandal.

Trump's family is one good indicator of what he is like in private.

Drago said...

Field Marshall Freder: "This is a demonstrable fact"

If you like your demonstrable facts, you can keep your demonstrable facts. No one is going to take your demonstrable facts away from you. Period.

Drago said...

I just hope Barron doesn't grow up to kill women like the Kennedy's have done.

CStanley said...

I think he's a very handsome boy altough awkward as boys that age usually are.

The shirt is odd but I love that no one stopped him from wearing it, as he always seemed to be dressed up as a prop in photos. Maybe Melania was truthful in saying he liked to dress formally, or maybe she was a bit clueless and he just didn't complain but now is getting to the age where he does..,but either way it's better to see him as a more normal kid. I think she's done a great job overall though in keeping a low profile for him and their family, and hope people leave them alone.

Bad Lieutenant said...

“Do you think it is okay for a Republican senator to body slam a journalist?”

Only if out of ammunition.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Dear tolkein,

Are you named after someone or something other than the immortal John Ronald Ruel Tolkien?

If not, your name is misspelled.

So if you could fix it, that would be great.

rhhardin said...

Maybe he could take up ham radio. Age 11 is right.

Be a young Barry Goldwater with a quarter wave vertical in the rose garden.

tcrosse said...

Put him in a dress and call him Bernice and the press will leave him alone.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said...Imagine being Trump, 70 years old, billionaire and President of the United States, and having a mother-in-law and father-in-law living with you. I assume that a big part of the idea is to have a feeling of family around Melania and Barron. He must be a native speaker of Slovenian.

I admit I can't get very far trying to imagine I'm Trump, but I think it's sweet to live w/one's extended family and have grandparents in the same (big!) house as grandchildren. Honestly I hope to arrange something like that for myself/my future family. My parents are exceptionally good people, which helps I guess, but I'd bet that mode of living was more common in the recent past and had a positive influence on child raising. It's intuition, but I'd bet it's true.

Yancey Ward said...

I think it is great that Melania's Trump's parents are living with them- it helps minimize the loneliness and isolation that must necessarily be a part of being the spouse or child of the president.

Gahrie,

Probably because no one knew that detail? I didn't.

Fen said...

I'm more concerned about the kid's jeans. I'm certain I can slueth out some great psychological import that will sustain The Liberal Meltdown for another 6 months.

Kirk Parker said...

tolkein,

Your sarcasm detector is badly broken.




All,

Barron merely has to grow up to be a better human being than Chelsea "Sinecure" Clinton. What a low, low bar... just a nanometer above Better Than Nothing.

CStanley said...

I agree with commenters who have a positive view of the grandparents staying close to the first family when kids are young. Thought it was good with the Obamas and here too.

The oddness that Althouse references, if anything IMO is more related to Trump's age. He's quite old to have an 11 year old child. I don't know Melanie's age but it seems likely the grandparents may be younger than Trump, so in that sense the extended family is unusual.

wwww said...

I admit I can't get very far trying to imagine I'm Trump, but I think it's sweet to live w/one's extended family and have grandparents in the same (big!) house as grandchildren. Honestly I hope to arrange something like that for myself/my future family. My parents are exceptionally good people, which helps I guess, but I'd bet that mode of living was more common in the recent past and had a positive influence on child raising. It's intuition, but I'd bet it's true.


It's still common in many places like Italy. 3 story houses with the grandparents on 1 floor with their own apartment-style unit w/ kitchen. It's odd for the grandparents not to live with or near their children.

It's a great situation, especially for the kids, to have grandparents close by or in the house.

Michael K said...

Blogger Bad Lieutenant said...
“Do you think it is okay for a Republican senator to body slam a journalist?”

Only if out of ammunition.


Or in the absence of butcher knives.

Lucien said...

Maybe Barron's shirt is a gift from Dad; or maybe he's compelled to wear it after a particularly know-it-all comment at dinner; or both.

readering said...

Funny that his father-in-law felt the need to travel in a suit on a weekend. Maybe he didn't want to get it wrinkled packing.

Tough for the kid to change cities at the end of a school year. Separated from old friends, not yet met new ones in school.

damikesc said...

Know what's funny?

How much of a whore Malia is.

Since the kids are now fair game and all...

Michael K said...

Multigenerational families were very common until the recent years. Of course, they are still the rule in certain subcultures today.

It's nice to see in the prosperous class.

tcrosse said...

“Do you think it is okay for a Republican senator to body slam a journalist?”

Ask his constituents.

readering said...

There's funny ha ha and there's funny peculiar.

Jim at said...

Yep. More proud moments from the left.

Mocking an 11-year-old boy because of who is father is.

What a wonderful group of people. Sure am glad to call them my fellow Americans.

Michael said...

Well, the good news is that the students at Barron's new prep school will never have heard bad things about Barron's father from their own parents. So I am certain there won't be any problems there at all.

The Progressive project is winding down, morphing into something dark and fruitless

Michael said...

Children in the White House! By all means. T. Roosevelt's kids rode their pony in the house. This, of course, was back in the day when the president was president and not king, when he could swim in the Potomoc or hike Rock Creek. He wasn't big on hyphenated "communities" . So bad thinker.

readering said...

And yet TR became pres because predecessor assassinated.

tolkein said...

Bad Lieutenant

I am a fan of the great JRR. I even corresponded with him when I was ten - and got a handwritten letter back from him! Those were the days. Looked him up in Who's Who (76, Sandford Road, Headington, Oxford, as I recall).
So, I know how to spell his surname correctly. My version is, one might say, an homage to the great Christian author.

Kirk Parker

Who says my sarcasm detector is badly broken?

I do like European History, and the history of the Habsburg empire.

Gospace said...

Michael K said...
Biden's, Kaines, the Kennedys, I'm waiting for the first Obama girls' scandal.


What they've done would be scandals if they were widely reported, and reported as such. Like when the media breathlessly reported that one of the Bush girls was (GASP!) engaged in in underage drinking of alcohol.

readering said...
Tough for the kid to change cities at the end of a school year. Separated from old friends, not yet met new ones in school.


Worst move I ever had as a kid was in the middle of a school year. Managed to arrange my own career so that my kids moved ONLY during summer vacations.

Kirk Parker said...

tolkein,

You answered rhh as if he were serious (his reference to "Austrian" should have been a dead giveaway.)

rhhardin said...

Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics (2007) is a pen-clicker.

readering said...

Gospace: My experience in third grade midyear different.

Gretchen said...

Let's talk about the 17K and 19K ball gowns teens Malia and Sasha wore while their dad made war on the 1%.

tolkein said...

Kirk Parker

Who said I didn't know?
And, after all, if President Obama thinks that Austrian is a separate language, maybe his fellow Americans do as well.

Bad Lieutenant said...

My version is, one might say, an homage to the great Christian author.
[by which you mean, presumably, the great Christian author, JRR Tolkien?]

I don't get it, but OK, thanks, asked and answered.

Bad Lieutenant said...

er, this?

http://www.tolkeinsociety.org/

Riiiight...

tolkein said...

Bad Lieutenant

I had not known about the tolkien society until you drew it to my attention