Barron Trump hasn’t been seen at college as classes start. Maybe he’s busy with Trump’s Gen-Z outreach

Classes began this week at many state and private colleges in New York, while new-student orientation has been taking place at such top schools as Columbia and New York University.

Barron Trump’s father, former president Donald Trump, has said that his son is expected to attend a college in New York, but the conspicuously 6-foot-7-inch teenager has not been seen moving into his freshman dorm, in the same manner as other celebrity kids, notably Suri Cruise at Carnegie Mellon or Violet Affleck at Yale.

There has been no video of Melania Trump helping her 18-year-old son find his way to his new on-campus residence or of an entourage of assistants and Secret Service agents following behind, lugging boxes and suitcases.

Maybe Barron has been busy, helping his father’s 2024 presidential campaign in a behind-the-scenes way.

Earlier this month, some Trumpworld “insiders” told the Daily Mail that Barron and his best friend Bo Loudon, a 17-year-old “conservative influencer,” have become the former president’s “secret weapon” and “de-facto social media outreach team” in his bid to sell Gen Z voters on the righteousness of his MAGA cause. The Daily Mail said that “tech savvy” Barron and Bo were “busily briefing” Barron’s 78-year-old father on the new landscape of streamers and YouTube stars.

And yet, Trump insisted last week that Barron, who graduated from high school in May, was all ready to start college.

The former Manhattan real estate mogul revealed to the New York Post, his former hometown tabloid, that his son was “all set in a certain school that’s very good.” Trump also shared that his son would go to college somewhere in New York, and that the family would make an announcement “soon.”

If Barron had indeed been accepted to “a very good school,” it could be Columbia or Cornell, the Daily Beast reported. They are listed as the top universities in New York, according to U.S. News and World Report’s list of best colleges. Both schools tie for No. 12 nationally.

But Columbia, in New York City, held its “mandatory” new-student orientation this week, with classes starting next Tuesday. Classes at NYU, ranked 35th, also start next Tuesday. Classes at Cornell, in upstate New York, started this week. The Cornell Daily Sun reported last week that Barron “does not appear in the student directories of Cornell, Columbia and New York University. Registered first-year students at Cornell are typically listed.”

The Daily Beast reported that Trump family’s announcement about Barron’s college choice has not been forthcoming. Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung also declined multiple requests from the Daily Beast to offer details about Barron’s whereabouts.

Back in April, the Daily Beast reported that Barron’s top choice for college was NYU, which makes sense, given that the urban university is kind of down the road — Fifth Avenue — from where Barron spent his early childhood, raised by his mother in his father’s gilded penthouse in Trump Tower.

Last week, Melania Trump also was spotted arriving at Trump Tower, while her presidential candidate husband was holding a campaign rally in North Carolina, Page Six reported.

Melania Trump’s presence at Trump Tower renewed speculation that Barron would be attending a school in New York City. One way that Trump World sources have explained her absence from her husband’s campaign has been by saying that she sees herself as a “hands-on” mother, whose first priority is her son, Page Six reported. Some have taken the “hands-on” mother description to mean that she would reside close to wherever he is attending college.

Melania Trump further fueled speculation amid “Barron’s college mystery” by posting a cryptic message on X Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported. She shared an aerial photo of Manhattan, effusively writing about how she arrived in the Big Apple 28 years ago as an aspiring model from Slovenia.

“This electrifying town isn’t just my home; it’s a colorful canvas where dreams come alive,” Melania Trump wrote. “New York’s iconic skyline and vibrant culture inspire me every day.”

There was “a lot to unpack” in Melania Trump’s message, the Daily Beast reported. But the message definitely implied that Melania still sees New York as her home, even though she’s spent the past four years raising Barron at her husband’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Maybe the message was her declaration that she’s more or less moving back to New York — perhaps because Barron will be going to school there.

The former First Lady already has made it clear that she doesn’t intend to move to Washington, D.C., if her husband is re-elected president. In June, a Trump World insider told Page Six: “Melania has made a deal with her husband that if he wins the presidency she will not have to be on first lady duty 24/7.”

Whether or not Barron ends up going to NYU or some other New York school, the choice marks a departure from Trump family tradition, the Daily Beast noted.

Donald Trump has boasted of his Ivy League education at University of Pennsylvania, which is ranked No. 6 by U.S. News and World Report. His older half-siblings, Don Jr., Ivanka and Tiffany, also graduated from Penn, while Eric Trump graduated from Georgetown University.

As Trump has spoken of his son’s academic future, he has praised him for being very smart and claimed he is very much in demand by the nation’s top institutions of higher learning.

In an interview with “Fox and Friends Weekend” in June, Trump rambled on with his praise: “He’s tall, good-looking guy. He’s a very good student, and he’s applied to colleges and gets into everywhere he goes. He’s very sought-after from the standpoint he’s a very smart guy. He’s a very tall guy and he’s a great kid. He’s cool. He’s pretty cool, I’ll tell you.”