Barron Trump ‘Regretfully’ Declines to Serve as Florida RNC Delegate, Melania Says, Citing Prior Commitments

The former first lady said that although Barron is turning down the offer to represent Florida at the GOP convention, he was “honored to have been chosen”

(Left to right): Melania Trump, Barron Trump and Donald Trump in January 2024. Photo:

GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty

Barron Trump will no longer be serving as a delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

After being chosen as an at-large delegate to represent Florida at the convention in July, the 18-year-old son of Donald Trump has declined to participate.

“While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,” the Office of Melania Trump said in a statement to PEOPLE on Friday, May 10.

Former US President Donald Trump (L) walks with First Lady Melania Trump and their son Barron, 2020.

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty

The role would have been Barron’s highest-profile political one to date.

While the teen, who is set to graduate from the private high school Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Fla. on Friday, May 17, may have witnessed many of his father’s past duties in the Oval Office, Barron has kept a relatively low profile since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

The high school senior has lived with his mother Melania, 54, in Florida since the family left Washington, D.C.

Hours before the high school senior declined the delegate role, the former president, 77, spoke fondly of his youngest son’s love for politics during a Philadelphia radio interview. Trump admitted that Barron, who was just 10 years old when he won the 2016 presidential election, sometimes gives him advice.

“It’s sort of funny. He’ll tell me sometimes, ‘Dad, this is what you have to do,'” Trump said during an appearance on Kayal and Company on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump, February 2024.

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“He’s a little on the tall side, I will tell you, he’s a tall one, but he is a good-looking guy,” Trump said of the 6-foot-7-inch Barron. “And he’s really been a great student.”

While Melania’s statement about “prior commitments” on Friday was brief, Trump said in his interview that Barron would be “going to college.”

He also added that “a lot of these choices of colleges are changing because you see what’s going on in the last month,” likely referring to pro-Palestinian protests that have disrupted classes at some campuses.

Meanwhile, Trump is on trial in Manhattan for over 34 felony counts of falsified business records.

His older children — Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany, as well as Don Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Tiffany’s husband, Michael Boulos — have also been selected as delegates to represent Florida at the convention.

The delegates will attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July to cast their votes to support Trump and ultimately solidify his place as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.